The chronicling and the posting of photos from our long trips take more time than I've had this week, and it's bugging me that I haven't said anything about our Christmas trip yet, so here goes. Here are a few highlights from our various stops and experiences:

• We decided to give Kent bottles in the car and to have me pump milk to keep up with demand, rather than having to stop for me to nurse him every time he got hungry (in addition to stopping for dirty diapers, food for us, and gasoline). It went well until the last day, when my pump completely lost suction — maybe I need a Dyson. My first time pumping in the passenger seat of our car while flying down the interstate was definitely strange, though. Soon after I had started the first time, we passed an 18-wheeler with mud flaps that ironically said "got milk?" I said, "Why yes, I do," and Jack and I chortled.
• We stayed with Emily in Atlanta going and coming to break up the trip, and she's living on her own for the first time. It was great to catch up with her and stay in her fun little house that's owned by the church she's working for. We also found a cute Italian restaurant called Ippolito's that we want to revisit someday.
• While at Jack's parents' house with Jack's sister, her husband, and her husband's mom (my mother-in-law-in-law?), we had a lovely Christmas with much opening of presents and much eating of holiday sweets. The three dogs tended toward overexcitement, though, which made Kent cry a couple of times, but then he got used to them. Kent got about 14 blankets for Christmas, most of them handmade and all very cool... but our car was pretty full. It didn't help that Jack's mom had Anilia and me go through her fabric stash, so I had a garbage bag full of awesome fabrics to weigh us down, as well.
• Lunch out at Macado's in Christiansburg one day gave us a chance to catch up with some of Jack's friends from high school. The broccoli cheese soup with cheese bread, as always, was awesome, and we got to see BJ and Mandy's house and their funny cats, named Pudge and Nacho. Such great cat names. BJ and Many also gave Kent a signing book and ASL flashcards, which Jack and I will probably use to quiz each other more than Kent.
• While in Winston-Salem, we stayed with my grandmother and uncle, and we got to visit with lots of friends and family. We had dinner with my friends from high school, and Nicole's dogs were very eager to taste Kent. There was much licking. We also got to meet Faith, whom you'd never know had just arrived in the U.S. for the first time in her life the night before. She was all smiles and bounces and curiosity... such a wonderful little girl.
• On "the way" back home, we stopped in Raleigh to visit Heather, her husband, and her one-and-a-half year old son, John, whom we hadn't yet met. He wasn't quite sure what to do with a baby to play with, but we had a nice time with them and played a fun Cranium spin-off on Saturday evening. My favorite parenting thing that Heather said, which I'm totally stealing someday, came when John wanted to keep coloring even though she wanted to take him back downstairs and get him ready for church. She told him the crayons were resting.

And that's all I'm writing. I love Christmas, and it was great to see people, but these car trips are getting kind of exhausting now that Kent is along. We might have to rethink our past eagerness to hop in the car for 15 hours. It wasn't foolhardy, exactly, but kind of a bit much. I think this country is just too big.

Labels: family, friends, holidays, Kent

• posted by erica 1/03/2008 10:00:00 PM
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