Christmas at "Home"
We were fortunate enough to spend Christmas at "home" this year!
HOME
Our favorite place on earth.
Our journey started with a departure from Venice on a Wednesday morning. We had happy faces and sad hearts at leaving Joey. Here the kids are sending him some encouragement for the battle with loneliness that lay ahead.
From Venice we landed in Frankfurt and began our long journey to Denver. Here's what we looked like after 15 hours of flying:
Georgie and Juliet slept a total of 1 hour throughout the whole journey and Isaac didn't sleep at all. Needless to say there was some crying going on as I drug them through customs, to pick up our luggage (to take IT through customs), and through security again to re board yet another plane. I was reminded of the times, as a child, when I fell asleep in the car on the way home and my parents had to wake me up to trudge my way up to my room so that I could go back to sleep. I remember so vividly how absolutely painful that walk was...how much my body was telling me to lay itself down already! I know that was what Juliet was feeling! Poor girl balled her eyes out, each step taken like she was carrying anchor, as we crossed the Denver airport and back again! But she earned us some very useful pity that took us to the front of more than a few lines! Isaac and Georgie, all things considered, were super troopers.
There was comfort in knowing that we had this to look forward to!
We spent a few beautiful days with just Gaga, then Papa and then Bryant, the cabin quiet and peaceful and the snow falling down continually. We baked sugar cookies and layer bars and cooked chili and soup for all the family that was coming over the next couple of weeks. And, of course, we played in the snow.
Here are Juliet and Arie Lou. Juliet never lasted very long out there;) But Georgie, Isaac, Arie and Liam could have stayed all day.
We spent a couple of days at Cary and Kreggs house, cousins I have always wanted Georgie to be able to spend time with...a house full of cute, sweet girls (and their accompanying American Girl Dolls!)
She loved them! And was sad to have to say goodbye:
Jake, Ashlee and the boys came and hung out a couple of times for dinner
and to spend some time playing in the snow.
But of course, good things come to an end and we had to say goodbye again:
Isaac and Tanner are on the couch over there, in tears and silence at the thought of saying goodbye again. It was especially hard on them and poor sweet Luke!!!:( We had such a rejuvenating time hanging out with Mimi and Poppop, Jenny and Brandon, Walt, Paula and Marissa and even Ruth! We were so lucky to get to see so much family while we were there.
By this time, it's Christmas Eve! Mimi and I did our darndest despite a few odds, to get us back to the cabin in time for the holiday dinner!
Christmas Eve Gift!
Juliets favorite Person! Papa!!
Aly slaving away at her dairy glazed, gluten filled rolls;) So worth every melting bite!
It was so cool to have McCall, Uncle Dave and Aunt Mary there with us for almost a week! They were such good sports to crash on floors, the couch and between sleeping grandmothers!
Yay!! Frosty came...delivering Christmas Pajamas!
Here's Juliet with her new favorite little person, Lyla.
It was our first time meeting this sweet little thing who was always dressed in Reindeers and Snowmen or leopards (and who exists on a Paleo diet;(...crossfitting parents!!) She is always perfectly behaved and ADORABLE!
Can you see her heart shaped birthmark on her tummy? It is so cute!
We went bowling twice while we were there!
These photos are from our first visit to the local lanes!
I was reminded of how awesome of a coach my father is. He gave me some tips at the beginning and when he was secure that his help was welcomed it became a team effort to up my score;) By the end of the trip I was bowling a 120 something, consistently. My best games ever;) I love my dad for more reasons than just excellent coaching skills, but that was certainly fun to learn from him.
This was the awesomest air hockey table I have ever seen (that costs $4 to play!!) A four way game with four players and four pucks.
I felt so grateful to see soooo much family while we were there. Lindsey and her family came up a couple of times (here she is at Cafe Rio)
Cameron and his wife Alyssa spent 4 nights with us!
And Juliet is loving Papa...again...on our 3rd Christmas morning, celebrated when Adam, Kirsten and family arrived.
Here gaga is helping Reese open her Ukelele!
This year we discovered the awesome sledding hill just around the mountain from our house. It's a long run, requiring a long walk but worth every step if you have a good sled. I'm looking forward to going back there every year from now on. It requires excercise from the kids and best of all, its free!!
Cameron, Alyssa and I celebrated too much Christmas food one day with a snowshoeing trek and then a crossfit work out afterward...Burpees, dips, push ups, squat here we are!
Bowling again!!:
Speaking of New Years Eve, we played games, this one is called Head Bands, the adult version and is very fun!
The titles here on Mom and Dad were the funniest/most ironic ones of the night:
....and kissing from Newlyweds;) If Joey had been here I would have layed one on him as well, even though we've been married for 10 years;)
New Years Day calls for kissing as well!
After lots of requests from the kids, on New Years Day we finally took them ice skating.
The girls and Corden especially loved it!
Even though this is my last photo this was not the end of our trip, no, there was the 12 person sledding run, all of us holding on to each other and barreling down the mountain at Soldier Hollow, th goodbye photos with the kids, good bying to Uncle Bryant, the time spent with the McCanns, the few days we had left with Mom and Dad, my visit with college friends, and terrible goodbyes with Papa and Gaga. If I can steal photos from someone who actually took some I will add them here later. It was a great time, so much owed to my parents. My Mom was a trooper, hosting 30+ people at times, feeding them casually, tolerating messes and kids and grumpy people and happy people and hoards and hoards of more people. Thanks Mom! You're a real trooper!
So begins our long arduous journey home. 56 hours to be exact. I could make a big sob story out of it but, all in all, we ended up having a pretty good time.
Our flight out of SLC was late getting out, so we missed our connection fight in Chicago by 20 minutes. We were able to get a flight to Munich the following night leaving at 9pm which left us with over 24 hours in Chicago...fun! The airlines provided us with a hotel and food vouchers, which we were quite grateful for. We had no luggage, no change of clothing and no coats or gloves which proved a little tough since it was FREEZING in Chicago! So cold! Our great friend Megan, here in Italy, is from Chicago and via imessage told me to take the kids to the Field Museum. We caught the L from the airport on Thursday morning and spent the day roaming through dinosaur bones and stuffed animal carcasses from all over the world.
I was struck by the genuine kindness and thoughtfulness of the people of Chicago. Folks really were so warm and friendly, concerned and helpful. We made friends with the shuttle bus driver who took us to and from the airport to our hotel. He was a very young 20 something who migrated to Chicago from Poland with his parents. He entered High School at the age of 16 not knowing a stitch of English. Isaac and Georgie told him they knew how that felt! We commiserated about the beauties of Europe, what he misses about it and what he appreciates about the US. It turns out, he and I agree on quite a lot! ( Sigh...no perfect place! but lots of awesome ones!) I left our one rolling luggage piece in the back of the taxi cab we took from the L to the museum (a real "Ashley" move) and I had the entire front entrance staff of the museum on my team tracking the taxi cab down. One man let me use his phone and offered to wait after his shift as long as it took until I got a return call confirming my luggage. The lady with the taxi company was AWESOME and showed real concern and the ladies at the museum ticket counter were clapping and grinning from ear to ear when I came back in with my luggage...in hindsight, it was fun!
To continue our journey with the delightful people of Chicago I'll tell you one more story. From the airport to the field museum is a 45 minute ride on the L. We were tired and dirty and ragged looking from lack of showering or face wash or changes of clothes. About 1/3 of the way into our journey a very large woman (350# +) boarded the train. We exchanged smiles as she took a seat close to us. The kids were behaving themselves, playing nicely together and we exchanged more smiles with her. 20 minutes later she hands $20 to Georgie. Georgie then gives it to me and motions toward the woman. "Buy them something," she tells me with an accent I couldn't pick up on. "They are so good, buy them something." Mind you this woman looked quite poor herself. I was complimented, flattered, shocked, and extremely humbled but mostly I felt very inappropriate taking it from her. But I also knew it would be rude and awkward of me to try and give it back. So I smiled and thanked her and the kids thanked her and I sat back and marveled and wondered at the fact that we might have just received the widows mite. I chatted with her for a few minutes a little while later but I didn't get a great feel for her story. I know she was coming home from work and that she lived way outside of the city, near the airport, not the best area, I am sure. She was carrying some things she had purchased for her sister that evening after work. I told her that she was a very generous person. I didn't get the feeling she was fishing for any compliments. It was a good experience for the kids and I hope it affected them a little. We still have the $20.00 and need to talk again about how we want to spend it or donate it. It is a special $20.00 bill that we won't give out lightly.
We boarded our plane in Chicago and were all quite excited about it. Juliet had been asking for the "movie airplane" since our journey began! Movies to our hearts content! I stressed a little as Georgie was never able to fall asleep but felt grateful that Isaac and Juliet slept a decent amount. Like Georgie, I didn't sleep at all. We landed in Munich after 12 hours and crashed again on the seats outside of a random gate. We had 8 hours to kill!! Juliet was wide awake so she and I killed time reading books, going to the bathroom, and hanging out quietly. Isaac was cute when he took his few remaining Euro and escorted Juliet to the toy store and bought her her own little set of Duplo legos. Because he didn't want to leave Georgie out he bought her a little gift too. He was so cute and thoughtful about it. Love that boy! So we came and went and ate and sat and played for 8 hours. We treated our little corner of the airport like it was our home, coming and going and sprawling as we wanted! I feel confident they were ready for us to go when the 8 hours were up. We had de-gentrifying there schmancy airport for too long!
The Munich airport is NICE:
Just in the area where we were sprawling there was this airplane playground, 3 really nice restaurants, a complimentary tea and coffee bar, a toy store, a whole bunch of designer shops whos' names I can't remember and luckily, a United Colors of Benetton store. I thank heaven for that Benetton shop that happened to be having a January sale because I had to buy Juliet 3 pairs of pants while we were in that airport. She poo'ed in her pants 4 times! Yes, that's right, you heard me, she poo'ed in her pants 4 times during our lovely 8 hour layover in Munich. You bet they were ready to get rid of us!
Love that girl:
Love this trip:
Love our family!!
Happy New Year Everyone!! And much love and thanks to all those involved!
xoxo
