Christmas Eve and Crawling

On Thursday, December 22nd, we left Denver to drive to Kansas so that we could spend Christmas with Greg’s family. We left late in the evening. My thought was that we could leave around Adrianna’s bedtime and hope that she slept the whole trip (overnight) so that her sleeping schedule wouldn’t get messed up by her sleeping in the car during daylight hours. While this was a good plan in theory, it unfortunately did not pan out.

Adrianna’s new carseat sits more upright than her old one, so she isn’t able to sleep as well in it without her little head bobbling forward. After a few hours, she was screaming and just plain unhappy to be confined to her seat. Since it was getting close to 11 or 12 at night, we decided to pull into a motel.

The first motel only had smoking rooms left. Yuck. So we went over to a Days Inn across the street. They only had one nonsmoking room left, so we took it. (What is up with so many smoking rooms?)

When I was checking us out of the room, the lady at the front desk asked if there was anything they could have done to make our stay more pleasant. I told her that they could’ve done something about the crying baby that kept me up most of the night. Oh wait. That was my baby. I feel really sorry for the people in the rooms on either side of us. We did our best to keep Adrianna quiet, but I am sure they were quite annoyed by her crying. I figure we only got maybe 4 or 5 hours of sleep that night. Adrianna woke us up early and wouldn’t be placated, so we got an early start back on the road.

Chloe and Molly were absolute angels on this trip. We were wondering how they would behave in the minivan. With our car, they are really good about sitting on the seat and staying put, but then with that small of a vehicle they don’t really have too many other options. With the minivan, there isn’t really a way to just confine them to a seat. But they stayed put on the captain’s chair for the entirety of the trip. They just curled up and slept. I was quite proud of them; they travel so well. Even at the motel they were quite well-behaved.

We got to Greg’s parents’ house around lunchtime on Friday. That has to be a record for us; usually we arrive at their house in the middle of the night. Kristi arrived just an hour or two later.

On Saturday, Jeff and Jess flew in from Vancouver. We met them at the airport, along with Jess’ family. Lunch was spent at Chipotle. Before we knew it, it was time for the Christmas Eve service at church.

I absolutely love Christmas time. I love singing all the beloved Christmas songs and hymns. I sing to Adrianna every day, and right now most of the songs are composed of Christmas songs. I have quite a repertoire built of Christmas songs that I know the words to from my days as a Holiday Caroler in Omaha. (We dressed up in Charles Dickens’ era outfits and everything.)

After the Christmas Eve service, we had waffles for a late dinner. Having waffles for dinner on Christmas Eve is a Reimer Family tradition from Greg’s childhood. Greg and I really enjoy this tradition and plan on continuing it with our children as well.

Since Jeff and Jess had to leave after lunch on Christmas Day, we decided to open gifts on Christmas Eve. Another great thing that the Reimer Family does is draw names for Christmas gifts. This way, it is much less stressful (and less expensive) to buy gifts since each person only has to buy for one person. You do not find out who drew your name until it is time to open the gifts.

I really scored this year. Greggor bought me a nice sewing machine which I am excited to learn how to use. I have been wanting one for awhile and hope to put it to good use. I also got the Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis and a bunch of scrapbooking supplies from Grandpa (Elmer) Reimer, who had drawn my name for the exchange. Greg received some kind of “knob” for his computer that was purchased at thinkgeek.com by Jeff and Jess. I don’t know exactly what it is, but he is pretty happy about it.

Adrianna made out like a bandit. She got an adorable red outfit, a puppy dog piano/xylophone, and a couple children’s CDs and board books from her Grammy and a great activity toy from her Aunt Kristi. She also enjoyed the pile of wrapping paper and boxes from all of our gifts.

Most exciting though – Adrianna totally started crawling. Really, it should be mentioned that she has been crawling (kinda) for a few weeks now, but she would only take maybe three little steps forward max. However, last night she made a beeline for the Christmas tree and crossed the living room. There was much commotion as Greg and I scrambled for the video camera to document this important occasion.

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1 Response

  1. momma says:

    I just knew Adrianna would start crawling when I was not around! I watched her try to crawl for weeks. hehe, thats ok though. I am glad her grammy and grampy got to see it 🙂 well, maybe I will get to see her first steps 🙂

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