December/January Travels

Merry Christmas!

A little backstory, just before this sweet moment between Baby Jesus and His Mama, Eddie was banging Jesus against the roof of the stable saying, "Ouch!" Perhaps a little more typical of a two-year-old. When I mentioned maybe Baby Jesus needed a kiss from His mama since He'd gotten hurt, Eddie put to use his new found knowledge that Mary was Jesus' Mama. That's what he's saying, "Mama Mary".

Our family traveled for the holidays this year. It was the first time we went to Illinois to be with family for Christmas. After several California Christmases, which are a blast, don't get me wrong, we were excited for a taste of our Christmas roots!

Festival of Lights!

Jonathan's family grew up going to the Festival of Lights. I can only remember going with the Zobrists once, although it was something to remember--we went in a limousine! However, I can't recall anything about the lights themselves, I only remember I was sitting on my mom's lap, not buckled in and I was terrified the whole time the police were sure to find out and I'd be carted off to jail. 

Anyway...this time was much more fun! We drove through the displays after enjoying shakes at Steak 'N' Shake. All this while we were staying at Embassy Suites in Peoria. So fun! Manager's Reception and board games, swimming and hot tub-ing, late night conversation, omelettes for breakfast! 

Of course, we had to celebrate Eddie's birthday again! We'd had a little party at our house closer to his big day, but we had another celebration at Gramps' and Grammy's. 

Gramps made an epic cake--Thomas the Train coming out of a tunnel! 

Eddie's favorite!

Jonathan's blue rail train which is still at his parents house, was a BIG hit with Eddie! He'd seen it on FaceTime, but in person, he was hooked. Not even birthday presents could tear him away from it! 

Decorating cookies and a gingerbread house!

My sweet nephew, Archer!

Christmas Eve we celebrated with the Sauders.

Pajamas all day! Ebelskivers for brunch, a tradition. Themed stockings, this year was "wearables", and ranged from ear buds, to socks, to temporary tattoos, to band-aids. My favorite Christmas activity with the Sauders is what we call, Gifts to the Family. Everyone has to come up with something to share with everyone. We spread them out throughout the day, and it's a blast! I put together a little booklet of Christmas songs and played the piano while we sang them. We had a Christmas story or two, a slideshow of pictures throughout the year, board game time (during which Eddie played with the train. Seriously. From time to time we'd hear, "A boten" (it's broken) when he'd need help hooking up a car or fixing the track, otherwise, he played by himself for over an hour!). I'd highly recommend gifts to the family, so much fun!

Christmas Day we headed to my parents' house to celebrate with the Zobrists the day after Christmas. Zach and Amelia came over to spend the night too, so we had late night snacks and conversation and games (something we did several times over the course of our trip, we stayed up way later than we should have!). 

Cousins!

It's crazy to think what the next few years will bring for these little guys! This Christmas was pretty mellow with 2 babies and a toddler, but just imagine two years from now! Yikes! They'll be getting into all kinds of trouble!

Then we had another big Christmas party with my mom's family!

Eddie participating in the traditional Knapp Family Nativity.

Oh the memories I have of dressing up with all my cousins to act out the Christmas story! It was so fun to get to dress up Eddie and have him join in the fun! He really didn't know quite what to think. But he did know he wanted to be a shepherd. Weeks beforehand I'd ask him, "What do you want to be, a shepherd or an angel?" It varied. But that night he was sure!

Me and my little shepherd.

It was a wonderful trip! No white Christmas, but such sweet memories with family! It was exhausting! A lot more celebrating than we've been used to in the past few years, and not being home in your own bed every night takes it's toll. We were ready to head home when the time came! Unfortunately, the day we were supposed to leave there was an ice storm. Everyone was without power, and, of course, our flight was cancelled. Thankfully we were still at my parents' house, didn't have to spend the night in an airport or anything. We were all packed up ready to go, but then stayed two more nights.

At the airport a few days later, ready to head back to warm California!

Just in time for New Year's! A big deal just south of us in Pasadena! 

We met up with some good guys (Jesse, Steven, Andrew, and Ryan)

For our traditional (at least we hope it becomes tradition!) walk down Orange Grove to see the floats lining up the night before the Rose Parade. Yes, Eddie slept instead of looking at the spectacular floats. Poor guy was still on Illinois time and it was late! We watched the parade the next day from the warmth and comfort of our living room! 

Then off traveling again! To Phoenix for the weekend to celebrate and send off a dear friend, Kailey, who is spending the semester in Jordan. From there straight to San Diego. Jonathan had a conference and Eddie and I came along for the ride. We stayed right in downtown which would've been such fun to explore except it rained all week. We did venture out some, but did a lot of relaxing and playing in the hotel.

It was my birthday while we were there!

Jonathan took me out to a delicious modern Italian restaurant!

Most notable about our stay in San Diego was how much time we spent looking out the window. We were on the 11th floor and from our suite we could see the train station and trains coming and going, the airport and airplanes coming and going, and the harbor and boats coming and going. It was a two-year-old boy's dream come true!

I got to visit a friend who recently moved to the San Diego area. She's a dear friend, kindred spirit, so it was so good to catch up, meet her new baby boy and watch her daughter and Eddie get reacquainted and play together.

Probably Eddie's favorite San Diego adventure was our trip to the Children's Museum. I basically followed him around while he explored (I learned why one usually plans these sorts of things with other moms and their kiddos).

Building stuff!

He could've hung out here all day 

pushing the wooden cars on this cool track!

The last day we were there, it was finally sunny! We took the stroller out and found this antique carousel! I couldn't resist!

He pretty much looked like this the whole time.

Like he was ready to bolt and leave this weird experience behind.

But he said it was fun afterword.

After all that fun! All that's left to say is...HOME SWEET HOME!