Christmas traveling, phase 3

The day after Christmas, we made the l.o.n.g. trek to Utah. I am still trying to forget that drive. The morning we were supposed to come home, J woke up with an inner ear virus that made it impossible for him to get out of bed--extreme nausea. So we waited until 1:30, doped him up with lots of drugs, and took off to see how far we would make it. We ended up just going and going until, at 1am, we pulled into our driveway and our cold, cold home (it had been highs in the 40s while we were gone and lows in the 20s, and because that is unheard of in the desert, we turned our heat off while we were gone.)

But I digress. Let's focus on all of the fun times we had while in Utah. We played in the snow (and apparently, from this first photo, Mister ate a bit of it). We played first, at Grandma's house, then went sledding (at 17 degrees). Even H went down the hill. Grandpa was our faithful ride up the big hill. And, no jumps, like last time.

We exchanged gifts. The boys all got nerf bow and arrows from Grandma and Grandpa and the girls all got Cabbage Patch Kids. The kids also made a few mean forts in the basement while the adults exchanged gifts.

And, we went bowling (while H went on some nice horse-back rides around the bowling alley) and to the Hansen Planetarium (no pics on the last one--I had a crazed 1-year-old to chase).

Christmas traveling, phase 2

Phase 2 of the Christmas break was my favorite: HOME! We traveled back home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (and to unpack, do the laundry, and pack it back up again).

Our traditional Christmas Eve candlelight dinner.

Acting out the Nativity

Presents!

Then we went for a nice bike ride, with H testing out my new bike carrier:

Christmas Traveling, part 1

36 hours in the car over the space of 15 days. That was Christmas for us this year. And it will never happen again. It was miserable. (The traveling part, anyway, the visiting part was fun!)

So, phase 1 of Christmas traveling: California. The weekend before Christmas, we headed to sunny California. Wait. Sunny California was not so sunny. It never stopped raining. This was a problem given busy boy H who desperately needed a place to run and play. Thankfully, he did not unwrap all of Grandma's wrapped presents (like he did at our house). Nor did he take too many ornaments off the trees. And we managed to pass 5 days without anything major breaking. Phew! He did, however, find the stash of permanent markers:

In order to escape the rain, we visited the Discovery Science Center, where the kids tried out the wind tunnel, the rock wall, and the bed of nails and where H almost wore out the slide.

Opening presents at Grandma and Grandpa's:

Pre-Christmas Fun

Gingerbread house-making and a trip to the Zoolights.

Oh, and reading H's favorite Christmas book, Frosty the Snowman, which we read on average 15 times a day. He was particularly fond of Frosty's button nose.

December Poem of the Month

Since I haven't finished putting away my Christmas decorations and I haven't even blogged about Christmas yet, I figured it wasn't too late to post December's poem of the month (and since I've been a poem-of-the-month slacker lately). I looked this up to post it on Dec 24 and then got side-tracked and never did.

This poem--"Christ Climbed Down" by Lawrence Ferlinghetti-- was controversial at the time it was published in 1958 and still can be today. It may seem sacrilegious, but bear with me because I don't read it like that. I like this poem because every year it seems that I fight to keep Christ ever-present in our Christmas celebrations. Every year, Christmas seems to be hijacked by commercialism and wants and busyness. I see Ferlinghetti addressing that in this poem.

I also like this poem because the end makes me think about what Ferlinghetti might be saying and how this might be true: Christ does have to come again in our own individual, anonymous souls. He does have to be "born again," in effect, or evidenced in our own hearts. Isn't that what Christmas is about after all? This poem is still copyrighted, so I'm only going to include the beginning and the end. You can read the rest here.

Christ Climbed Down
By Lawrence Ferlinghetti

CHRIST climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
there were no rootless Christmas trees
hung with candycanes and breakable stars
. . .
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and ran away to where
no Bing Crosby carollers
groaned of a tight Christmas
and where no Radio City angels
iceskated wingless
thru a winter wonderland
into a jinglebell heaven
daily at 8:30
with Midnight Mass matinees
Christ climbed down
from His bare Tree
this year
and softly stole away into
some anonymous Mary's womb again
where in the darkest night
of everybody's anonymous soul
He awaits again
an unimaginable and impossibly
Immaculate Reconception
the very craziest
of Second Comings

Hope you had a great Christmas! I'll be back to report on ours very soon--as soon as those darn Christmas decorations get taken down (I'm intentionally using passive voice, hoping that I don't have to be the one to take them down).