Our Christmas this past year was actually pretty tame by our standards. Not too many travel hijinks. No one vomited. All the gifts we bought for people made it more or less on time.

Merry Christmas!

But before that, we had a few “holiday” events. Early in December, we had a real snow. There wasn’t a lot of it, but instead of the icy sleet pellets we normally get, fluffy snow accumulated on the car and yard. I knew Ian wouldn’t be as crazy about it, but just in case it was gone by morning, we actually got Maya out of bed to come check it out. The next morning, they got to be a little late for school so they could have a few minutes tromping around the yard and making the tiniest snowballs.

Guys! I made a snow ball!

Maya and Ian had their Christmas recital at school and both of them performed admirably. Sean managed to take video of the performances so the grandparents could see their lunatic grandchildren in action. On the same day as the kids’ school recital, Maya had a piano recital. I was edgy about the stacked events, but it turned out great. Maya played her piece wonderfully and seemed to genuinely enjoy herself.

Ian rocking the school recital

We went to visit Santa at the swanky outdoor mall near us. The line was long and slow and the kids didn’t handle it well. But, once we finally got in to see the big man, Maya chattered his ear off. Ian takes a lot of cues from his big sister (good or bad), and decided that if she wasn’t terrified of this weirdo in the red suit who wanted to be sat on, then he wouldn’t be either. But he wasn’t going to talk to him.

Santa! I want an octopus! And an Audi!

Maya, who is intermittently interested in dance class at school, sort of participated in her dance recital later in the month. She was cute in her outfit, but it was clear her heart just wasn’t in it.

Our little travelers

Our travel plan this year to save cash was to book a round trip ticket between Austin and Memphis. From there, we’d drive three hours up to my family’s house in Missouri, six or seven hours from Missouri to Alabama and then the three hours from Sean’s family’s house back to Memphis when it was time to leave. All of the driving parts actually went pretty well given that small children were involved. Plus, Santa had brought the kids their very own suitcases, which they both loved wheeling through the airport.

The only travel hitch we encountered was on the airplane ride into Memphis. As with most flights, we had a layover in Houston. As I recall, we handled the plane change with no issues. Then we sat on our plane forever while flight crew and ground crew do-daddled. Then, to “fix” something, they had to shut down and restart the plane. Just like I “fix” my computer. When that didn’t work, they had us all exit the plane. We waited for a while in the boarding area. There was a candy store right by our gate, so we took turns letting each of the kids shop for some treats. We waited some more. Finally Sean gave up and went to forage for dinner. About the time he arrived back loaded down with our food, we were hastily reloaded onto the plane. We do our very best not to bring smelly fast food onto the tin can full of recycled air, but that day, we had no choice. All told, our flight arrived about two hours late.

Maya and Ian handled the weird delay … okay. I thought they were kinda antsy and were starting to get a little vocal about when the eff this plane was going to leave already because they were going to their grandparents’ house, but multiple flight attendants complimented them on their patience once we got to Memphis. Surprise kids! Now we have a three hour car ride!

We thought they’d have a little nap on the drive, and that would be okay because then they’d have energy to play with all of Grammy and Grandpa’s toys for a while before bed. Surprise parents! Your kids will stay awake the ENTIRE TIME and will be a leeetle bit sleep deprived and off kilter when you arrive at your destination!

Maya and Grandpa on the Mule

The kids generally love Grammy and Grandpa’s house. There are so many toys to play with and a big yard to run around in. Maya’s new infatuation though was Grandpa’s mule. It’s some kind of tractor like thing, and despite the cold weather, she wanted to ride it again and again. Ian did not seem too interested.

Ian and Grammy staying inside where it was warm

We have a big family, so there’s always a lot of celebrating. Honest to goodness, I had to write it down to keep track of where we were going to be on any given day. Christmas eve saw us having a smaller celebration with just Dad and Carol, my brother and sister and their spouses and kids. They had a lot of fun opening literal mountains of gifts.

This is a lot of people to get organized

Later that evening, we celebrated with Great Grandma Schmidt and all my aunts, uncles, cousins and their various progeny on the Schmidt side.

We celebrated with the aunts, uncles, cousins and their various progeny on the Stueve side at Aunt Sharon and Uncle Doug’s house on Christmas day. We let Maya take her iPad in case she got fidgety and it turns out that was a big draw for some of the cousins. Someone “accidentally” placed candy dispensers right at preschooler height, so Ian and his cousin Nathan had a fine time availing themselves of the sweets. Uncle Doug and cousin Dakota brought out fiddle and guitar later on, and Maya and Grandpa had fun dancing.

Is it gonna cuckoo soon?

We visited Great Grandma Schmidt for a while the day after Christmas and Maya learned all about the cuckoo clock. After it popped out once, she was riveted, waiting not-so-patiently for it to pop out again. We saw friends of mine from grade school that afternoon while Maya and Ian monopolized Grammy and Grandpa’s time.

On the 27th, we drove to Alabama. As mentioned, it was an uneventful drive and the kids were very happy to see Lolli and Pop and all their kitties at the end of it. Sean’s Aunt Sharon was spending the holidays there as well, and Maya in particular became very attached to her over the course of the visit. Aunt Darci and her kids were also in town, and AP (who is 8) was really nice about playing with kids so much younger than her.

Lolli and Pop!

The morning of the 28th saw full stockings and terribly excited kids. It was utter mayhem at stocking time. I tried to keep track of which goodies and gifts belonged to which kid, but it was hopeless. By the time they were done, there was nothing left but flattened stockings, a pile of loot, and four exhilarated children.

Maya telling Lolli all about the iPad

Later that day, we all went to the McWayne center to have some good run-around time and maybe some accidental learning. Ian rode the train with Lolli. Maya was mistaken for a seven year old while waiting in line to ride the zip line.

Ian and AP helping Pop test out his Rudolph nose

The next day was mostly about relaxing and playing together. The kids had tons of toys to dig into. The cousins played together some. We went out for pizza and ice cream. We’re nearly certain this evening was when Sean cooked his traditional shrimp scampi dinner.

We regularly found Maya glued to Sharon during this visit :-)

On our last full day in Homewood, we saw Darci and the kids as well as Aunt Sharon undertake their travels back to their respective homes in Northern Virginia and Knoxville, TN. Sean and Pop took the kids to some kind of bouncy trampoline type place so they could burn off some energy. We boxed up as many of the gifts as we could and shipped them back home.

New Year’s Eve had us driving to Memphis and flying back home. Other than me forgetting Ian’s sunglasses in the rental car, everything went as expected. That evening, I don’t remember the kids giving us too much trouble at bedtime. Sean and I did manage to stay up and split a bottle of really delicious champagne to ring in 2018.