All of us were ostensibly well again leading into December. We let Maya stay home on Friday the 1st. Even though she’d been fever-free for over 24 hours, she was clearly still exhausted. I had no problem believing here either. For one, Maya hates missing school. For another, Sean and I were still both pretty wiped out, and even Ian, though he’d never admit it, was still running a little slower than normal (and he was awfully compliant about bedtime).

That evening, Anna hung out with the kids while Sean tolerated a Liz Phair concert for me. Right after college, I did field work, and so I would spend hours in the rental car driving this way and that along various fiber routes. This was in the olden days when you either listened to the local radio stations or brought a handful of CDs along. “Exile in Guyville” traveled many miles with me that year, and when I heard it would be performed in its entirety, it sounded like something I didn’t want to miss.

It was a weird experience. She and her band sounded great, and they put on a solid show. But this is an album I listened to in college in my late teens / early twenties. Back then I ran on anger, self-possession, and an overdeveloped “fuck you” attitude. I’ve mellowed considerably since then, so mostly I think I had a mental chuckle at how Ms. Phair, who is slightly older than I am even, felt about singing these songs now. I was happy I went, and I think even Sean enjoyed himself a little (or was saying so just so I wouldn’t worry about it).

We managed to start decorating our Christmas trees some over the weekend finally. Lights, garlands, and stars went up. The kids selected the ornaments for their little tree, and we hung a few on the bigger trees as well. This year, we decided to buy a single reasonably-sized real tree (7-8 feet) and then flanked it with a couple of shorter, skinny tinsel trees. I thought it was very pretty and gave us plenty of real estate for ornament hanging.

On December 3rd, Sean’s birthday, I wound up begging him to take Ian to his scouting event so I could finish making his birthday cake. At his request, I made the same chocolate malt cake that I have for the past several years. The recipe had moved websites, and the link to the icing recipe was broken so I had to improvise a little. I should really write this stuff down.

For Ian’s scout outing, to fulfill their “Fellowship and Duty to God” adventure, they visited a local Buddhist temple! I was so impressed and maybe a little sad that I didn’t get to go with Ian. Sean tells me that that group of 8- and 9-year old kids behaved very well and were respectful throughout.

That evening, For Sean’s 50th birthday, we tried taking Maya and Ian along with us to Uchi, one of our very favorite restaurants. The kids have developed a deep affection for sushi over the past year, and historically Uchi has served us many spectacular meals over our long time in Austin, so we were hopeful. We had the kids dress up a little, and I think that may have helped set the tone. They were so well behaved! Sean and I had the omakase (meaning the chef selects our dishes) and the kids each chose some nigiri, a sushi roll, and a cooked dish. Between the food they picked, which they definitely loved, and bites of our various dishes (many of which they also liked), we spent an entertaining evening celebrating a milestone birthday and mmmm-ing over our food.

The next week saw us decorating the trees in little fits and starts, trying to finalize Ian’s birthday planning, and getting Maya to all the events surrounding her after school choir group. She had rehearsal on Monday, rehearsal on Tuesday, three performances on Wednesday (one of which occurred in the evening so family and friends could watch), and then finally a caroling event in the Balcones Woods neighborhood right near the school on Friday.

Maya’s musical this year was the Broadway show “Seussical,” or rather a school-age adaptation of the same. She had to audition and was placed in the role of Mrs. Mayor. While she had originally wanted to be one of the cats in their infamous hats, she eventually came around, learned all her lines and songs, and did a bang-up job!

And after that crazy week, on Saturday, we drove to Houston for Ian’s cub scout campout at NASA’s Space Center Houston. I had been looking forward to their camp out at NASA ever since Ian decided he wanted to be in cub scouts. The last time we went to the space center, the kids were a lot younger and somewhat less interested. This time, the crazy was different. Just like the camping trip in November, we wouldn’t even be there for 24 hours and a great deal of that time was fully-scheduled.

We arrived early enough that we could wander around and check out the exhibits for a while on Saturday before the schedule kicked in. That was fun. Outside, we of course got to see the full-scale model of the space shuttle and its carrier 747. They also have a Falcon 9 rocket that we could check out. That guy clearly had some service scars from the two missions it was used for. Inside we saw exhibits showing space flight’s history of course, but also displays relating to the new Artemis mission to the moon and what subsequent space flight to Mars might entail. Maya chuckled over how much the Mars mock up looked like Arches National Park. We watched some excellent movies relating to the astronauts on the ISS and how their day-to-day lives ran. The idea of adapting to a space with no formal “up” or “down” boggles my brain a little.

Once the doors closed to the general public, the schedule kicked in. The good folks at Space Center Houston had activities galore planned for the kids, and Maya and Ian wanted to do ALL OF THEM. Meanwhile the parents gazed wistfully at the huge and unique light display (it was called “Galaxy Lights”) and hoped they’d be able to eke out a little time to walk through it.

The kids built rockets, made crafts, built gingerbread habitats (“Repeat after me: do not eat your habitat.”) drove RC vehicles, and consumed more sugar than Sean or I probably want to know about. In short, they had a blast (ha). We even managed to sneak out for a few minutes here and there to wander amongst the Christmas lights.

Once all the Christmas light visitors cleared out, the space center was locked down and we set up camp right amongst the exhibits. We could have camped outside, and I might have liked to, but given the uncertainty of the weather in December, we didn’t sign up for that option.

After a difficult night, we managed to pack up, grab breakfast, and make it to our tram tour on time. We got to see the giant Saturn V rocket, of course, but this time we got to see the Astronaut Training Facility. When we visited several years ago, it was Mission Control that we got to see.

After a stint at the gift shop, it was time to head home. Ian wound up riding back with his friend Malcolm, and Maya was delighted to have a brother-free ride home.

The very next morning, I was on a stupid-early flight to NYC for work – what timing! It was interesting seeing New York City all decked out for the holidays. Because of where the telco sites we visited were located, we stayed down in the financial district. Airport aside, I’m not sure we ever made it further north than maybe 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Still, it was a good trip, and it renewed my interest in getting a family vacation set up sooner than later. There’s so much to see, and honestly with the subway system, it’s not too bad getting around.

I arrived back in town on Thursday in time to drive Maya to her piano lesson. After I got back from that, Sean and I sat down and purchased basically all the Christmas gifts we could buy online for both Missouri and Alabama.

The next day, after work was done, Sean took Ian to get some birthday balloons, and I got his cake baked. He just wanted plain vanilla cake, but we decided to decorate it like a Poke Ball! I have a friend who did this with a spherical cake, if you can believe that. I was not that brave, and instead used a regular old double layer cake. I don’t think Ian minded.

On Saturday, we had Ian’s party at the Move Sport Ninja Academy, a Ninja Warrior gym. He had been to a party there earlier in the year and absolutely loved it, and the same was true this time. The kids played and played for the better part of our two-hour time, interrupted only a pizza and cake break midway through.

The next day, Ian had a caroling event with his cub scout troop. They went to a local nursing home and sang for the residents there. After caroling, Ian picked up his kit for participating in the pinewood derby. Sean will be building his derby car with him, so it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with.

The next day, we spent time making ornaments for grandparent gifts and taking Ian out to his favorite restaurant, Pappadeaux, for his birthday dinner. As usual, he feasted on fried crawfish. He had a celebratory brownie for dessert. Then we went home and opened gifts, and guess what? Ian got roller blades. Both kids will have their own skates for the rink.

We had our Texas Christmas on the 22nd. I had planned to work that day, but I just couldn’t quite figure out how to get everything in before our trip out of town. Ultimately I took the day off and was mentally much better off for it. I could get all the clothes laundered, things prepped for our cat-sitter, and I could relax and enjoy everyone opening their gifts without feeling like I had to make sure I hadn’t missed any emails.

And then the very next morning, we left at ridiculous o’clock to get ourselves to the airport to fly to Memphis! The way we split things up this year was to book a round trip flight to Memphis. Then we rented a car and drove first north to the Missouri grandparents, then southeast to the Alabama grandparents, then northeast back to Memphis. It’s a tolerable medium. I think.

We were really worried about how busy the airport would be given how awful it had been right before Thanksgiving. Then the afternoon before we left, I happened to notice a local news article urging us to make reservations for parking spots at the airport. What? I didn’t even know that was a thing. Alas, those have to be made 24 hours ahead, so we’d just have to show up and do our best.

Sure enough, when we got there, regular long term parking was fully booked. Luckily, there was space available in the more expensive garage parking (we were in the blue garage), so that’s what we did. We got parked and through security with a minimum of fuss, and consequently, we had plenty of time to go grab breakfast and sit down to eat it and still had time to relax before our flight.

Our flight was uneventful and our luggage was readily available after we landed in Memphis. And we had arrived early enough that all the rental car places would still be open! Alas, our rental car place (it was Dollar) had no cars available for us. We had a reservation. Actually, to save money, we pre-paid our rental. They sort of shrugged and told Sean it might be a couple hours before a car was available, maybe more. There was nothing for it but to wait. Luckily (?) our wait wound up being about an hour before we got the most smoke-smelly-then-covered-up-with-perfume funky car I’ve ever been in. I thought poor Maya, who has trouble with certain smells, was going to abandon ship altogether and spend Christmas in Memphis.

Luckily we rolled into Missouri with a minimum of fuss (though both the grownups were unspeakably tired after our early start). The kids got to see their grandparents and stretch out and play.

It was unseasonably warm, so the next day, Christmas Eve, Grammy and Grandpa suggested we go to Tower Rock. First though, we loaded up on a doughnuts from Hoeckele’s Bakery. Grandpa had fetched an assortment and we spent a couple lovely breakfasts having interesting doughnuts (my favorite was the red velvet cake one).

The Mississippi River was low enough that you could actually walk over to Tower Rock. Usually, the river flows around it. On the way, we saw a bald eagle, perched in a field. Dad thought he maybe had his eye out for fresh roadkill.

It was indeed a beautiful day to be outside. The eroded limestone is sort of naturally stair-stepped and easy to climb, and Ian made ample use of this feature. The rope we might normally use to climb to the top had been removed, but I think Ian, given half a chance, might have gone up anyway. Coming back down would have been tricky. Maya seemed to enjoy poking at the sand and casting her thoughtful gaze up the river. We’re assuming she was thinking through Blox Fruits strategies. She did find a hollowed out gar that was pretty interesting to look at.

We had stopped for a late lunch at East Perry Pub. The food was really good and even though they were busier than we expected on Christmas Eve, we got to eat fairly quickly.

That evening, Maya and Ian decided they wanted to go to church and see my sister Rachel’s kids perform in their Christmas program. I worried that we only had casual clothes, but Grammy and Grandpa were quick to tell us that was no problem. We taught the kids how to use the hymnals so they could sing along, and especially Ian was all in on the singing. Maya tells me that she hummed instead. We got to see the older Bachmann kids singing at the front of the church, but the two little boys had fallen dead asleep in Grammy’s lap!

I had forgotten, it’s been so long, but it is customary for the kids to get handed a paper bag full of fruit, nuts, and candy on the way out of church after the Christmas program. Maya and Ian were delighted!

On Christmas day, we did a lot of lounging around. We mentioned to Ian that Grandpa had real guns and that maybe Ian could ask to see them. Grandpa did one better; he let Ian shoot with one! After a very good explanation of gun safety, Grandpa and Ian did some basic target practice with a .22 caliber rifle. Ian struggled a little with the length of the rifle, but was able to aim and shoot fairly well regardless. As we walked down and set up to shoot, all was quiet, but after the first shot, the big white goose that has called Grammy and Grandpa’s pond home, Gus, set to honking and making his way hastily across the pond.

Against all odds, Imo’s pizza was open, and so on Christmas day, we had a satisfying lunch of toasted ravioli and provel-coated pizza. It was at Maya’s request, but I was so, so happy to get to eat there.

That evening, we had the big holiday party at Aunt Sharon and Uncle Doug’s house. All Ian could talk about was getting to play the ball game again. In this case, it is not a traditional sport, despite what the name might imply. A pile of random goods (think stickers, ice scrapers, ornaments, lotion, barbecue tools, etc, etc) get wrapped, layer after layer, in plastic wrap. The initial ball the players are presented with is immense. One player dons gloves and tries to unwrap the plastic wrap as quickly as possible, while the player next to them rolls a pair of dice. The first player can continue to unwrap till the next player rolls doubles, and anything that falls out is theirs to keep.

It results in barely controlled mayhem, and while that may not appeal to every kid, ours love it, especially Ian. We came home with all manner of crazy stuff. Sean and I, for example, now each have an ice scraper to put in the car. There were scads of stickers and wacky ornaments. I hear there was candy, but somehow that all got eaten before it was packed up for shipping.

We played more games, sampled whiskeys (including one that Dad/Grandpa used a home smoke infusion kit on, to lovely effect), and ate finger foods till I thought we might burst. It was a fun, laid-back evening, and I’m so happy we got to go again this year.

The next day, we woke up as early as our late night and alcohol consumption allowed and started cooking! Carol always makes a huge and glorious spread of nibbles that we all graze on throughout the day, and I do my best to keep up and help out a little here and there.

During all the nibbling, we snuck in various permutations of family photos all while the kids slowly melted over how long it was taking to get to the glorious pile of gifts under the tree. After the last photos was taken and the Christmas story was ready, finally the kids could open their presents. With eight grandkids, they were opened faster than Grandpa could hand them out, and I still don’t quite know what everyone got.

Poor Nathan had a rough go of it. He apparently was feeling sick and so he wasn’t up to being quite as boisterous as the rest of the crew, poor kid. That aside though, it seemed like everyone had fun and received things they enjoyed.

We spent an afternoon playing games and chit-chatting and of course grazing grazing grazing. The kids played with their toys and each other and got some solid cousin-time in. We had pulled the car out into the sunshine earlier in the day and opened all the doors in hopes of mitigating some of the perfumed smoke aroma, and that seemed to have helped. And good thing too; we’d have to spend several quality hours in that car the next day.

In the morning, in between packing, the kids managed to play a bit more. Ian did a little more shooting with Grandpa, and by all accounts has a pretty good aim. Somehow several treats, including an entire package of Oreos managed to sneak into our car as we packed. Grandparents.

The kids were annoyed to discover that they couldn’t just have their screens for the whole 7-hour drive. Sean borrowed the last audio book installment in the Magic Misfits series for us to listen to on our trip. In roughly two hour chunks, we made it through probably a little more than 2/3 of the book on our trip from Friedheim to Homewood, letting the kids have screen time breaks in between.

We managed to make it into Alabama in time for dinner with the whole family at Okinawa. Since Maya and Ian have found their love of sushi, this is a favorite of theirs. Plus Steele was there! Ian and Steele have become very good friends this year, and they played well together during this visit. In fact, that first night we were in town, Ian and Steele had a sleepover in the basement at Lolli and Pop’s house!

The next day, Sean and I plowed through last minute shopping and gift wrapping while pop took all four grandkids to the trampoline park! We hopped around a little trying to find restaurant gift cards for the grown-ups’ stockings. We stopped by a place called Eli’s Jerusalem Grill and the aromas were so enticing that we wound up splitting a shawarma snack before heading on to our other errands. We went by a place simply called Sugar to get sweets for the kids’ stockings. It was fun loading up bags from the “by the pound” bins and giant lollipops and oddly flavored jelly beans were nice add-ons as well.

That afternoon, we had Alabama Christmas! Downstairs, everyone dug into their stockings and in the mid-level, we opened gifts. Even with only four grandkids, it was a spirited affair, and I still didn’t manage keep up with what everyone got. Maya was the delighted recipient of a kitty robe and slippers.

You know those huge, rainbow colored lollipops that kids can’t resist but when the rubber hits the road, they can hardly eat a quarter of the silly thing before getting bored? Hero Ian managed to eat the entire lollipop. I think it took him the better part of the evening to do so. I don’t remember them being any flavor but sweet when I was a kid, but he tells me it was delicious. Maybe Sugar does something special with theirs.

The next day, at Ian’s request, we had Nothing but Noodles for lunch, where he proceeded to order plain buttered noodles with a side of shrimp. I demonstrated my culinary prowess by being confused by the skinny, cracker-like breadsticks in my pad thai and trying to use them as chopsticks (whoops). As is something of a pattern for us when we visit Homewood, we went out to the movies that afternoon! The kids chose “Migration,” and it was cute enough. They shared a huge bucket of popcorn with Lolli and Pop.

On our last full day in town, we did a lot of puttering around. We did go out to eat at Aww Shucks for lunch (after fetching some fast food for the kids). Sean and I each had ears of corn with sprightly toppings that were a messy pleasure to eat. (I had buffalo lemon pepper and Sean had garlic herb parmesan. So tasty.)

We spent a little time packing things up that evening, and finished the next day, new year’s eve. Our flight out of Memphis wasn’t till the afternoon, so we didn’t have to rush to get everything loaded up, which was nice. Travel that day was easy. We wound up having a lot of down time to eat our meals and read and play with screens and whatnot. Our flight touched down in Austin around 10:20 that evening, and we rolled into our driveway a little after 11. We had enough oomph left to haul in our stuff and settle in to have a bit of champagne and ring in the new year with the kids.