A Christmas Vacation

We drove to Jon's parents house in Corsicana, Texas for Christmas this year. It's about 12-13 hours from Colorado Springs and didn't really have any problems on the way. We drove one evening and then slept in Amarillo, got up super early the next morning to drive the rest of the way. Hannah was a champ in the car and actually slept a lot. We were actually trying to make sure that she was super sleepy so that she would sleep in the car. Usually she's not much for sleeping and then of course gets cranky. Our efforts were not in vain because she slept almost the whole second morning. By the time she started complaining or wondering when she was going to get out of the car, we were less than an hour from Grandma & Grandpa's house so she got pretty jazzed up. The highlight of the drive was getting to stop for lunch at Taco Bueno. If you don't know what that is, you are really missing out...it's fast food Mexican, very similar to Taco Bell in many aspects, but generally cheaper and WAY better. Shortly after that we may have had the worst part of the trip. We had lunch in south Dallas and were about 45 minutes to an hour from our final destination when we got pulled over....now on a side note, we are aware that Texas cops are infamous for pulling people over with out of state plates, but it might also benefit you to know that Dallas traffic sucks! Personally, I have always and will probably always, hated Dallas traffic and get incredibly stressed out by it. I have been WAY lost too many times to take it lightly...all of this to say that while Jon is more comfortable than I am, he was even a little stressed out because we didn't know where we were going really. We've never been to Corsicana, so we were unsure about the exits and stuff like that. So back to the Texas cop...we saw him and Jon was probably speeding a little because he was trying to get out of the fast lane, but we weren't sure how fast he was going because we weren't really sure of what the speed limit was! We were aware that we were hosed and that we would soon be writing a big, fat check to the state of Texas...grrr! The police officer walks up to the window and lets us know that he clocked us at 24 over! What the heck?!? Jon's thinking, great! I am going to lose my CDL for this for sure...and who the heck knows how much a 24 over ticket (probably to include reckless driving too) would cost...600-700 bucks if not more???....isn't that just a super way to start your Christmas vacation?!? So the guy comes back and for some reason has a heart of gold. He too saw Jon's CDL and said that someone with that kind of license ought to pay better attention...and he sent us on our way. Maybe it was because he knew that we were on the very last part of a very long trip or something too. Anyway, he let us go with no ticket, no written warning, nothing! Bless that Texas policeman! I take back all of the terrible things that I was thinking about not being able to stand Texas and their police force! Also, do I really need to say that we did not speed at all the rest of the time that we were in Texas?? We were there for a week and even drove up to Dallas a little and we were very good about making sure we knew the speed limits! Whew! When we finally arrived, Hannah could barely wait for us to get unpacked before she was digging out her swimming suit to go "snowing." That's what it sounds like when she says that she wants to swim...it makes me laugh!

I completely forgot to pack our camera for this trip so we had to do our best with the cameras on our phones. I thought I would start out with a picture of Hannah with Santa! She's a big fan of the ole' guy. Can you tell?? Yea, she's definitely kicking him to get away...poor Santa! It because this huge ordeal because Hannah kept saying that she wanted to see Santa, but the malls had crazy long lines. We stayed in a hotel at the Galleria mall in Dallas for a couple of days so we got up bright and early and ran down to the line to meet Santa as soon as he opened. Now Hannah has serious stranger danger and pretty much always has...so basically that means that she's never really wanted anything to do with Santa, let alone asking to see him! So, since she asked we thought she would be a little happier...not so much! She was all excited, but then when it was actually her time, she was not happy! She kept saying, "Santa's scary!" Poor Santa was like, "I'm not scary!" It was not a great way to start her day and I am sure that it wasn't a great way to start his day! Santa was on her hit list for a while after that!

Hannah's never been much of a morning person, so we were not completely surprised that she was the last one in the house to get up on Christmas morning. Since it was 9:30 and we were ready to get on with it, we decided to wake her up. She informed us all that she wanted to sleep again and not wake up. So Grandma, in a stroke of genius (at least that's what we thought at the time) says something like: Hannah, Santa brought you presents! Do you want to see what he brought? She immediately ran out of the room...crying! She ran to me. cried, and made it clear that she was not interested in having anything to do with Santa! Silly girl! If she's not on board next year, I might give up on the whole Santa bit! Plus, Santa gets credit for the coolest gifts and I'm a little jealous of that! So Santa brought her the princess outfit above, some sweet high heels, and a kitchen set! She was pretty excited about the presents once she got into it!

We got matching Christmas aprons! So fun!

Once the toys were opened, we had a very busy little girl on our hands!

Hannah and her great-uncle Doug made this gingerbread house. On top of the fact that she was working with Doug, whom she adores, she also got to eat some icing and candy pieces along the way. It turned out great!

Rudolph the red nosed Hannah!

Mike and Cindy have a swimming pool in their backyard and since it is heated, we were able to swim just about every day, usually twice a day. This is a terrible photo of me, but it cracks me up because of Hannah's expression! She's clearly riding the "Mommy horsey" right?

We switched back and forth between the pool and the "hot bath." This one's a better picture!

By the time Christmas dinner was ready, Hannah was ready to dig in, although she did wait patiently in her seat drinking her sparkling apple cider.

Christmas is a long day and warrants a big nap!

These are out of order a little, but I am not willing to move them around at this point! So this is Hannah and me all dressed up for dinner out in Dallas.

Hannah is a good, great-grandma "G" approved shopper...she got herself some Toms (a type of shoe) at Nordstroms!We had to come home the day after Christmas...we had a fantastic time in Texas with the whole family. I even got to see my sister while we were there! She was driving to my mom's house from Oklahoma so she stopped in for the afternoon to visit! When we got home, Hannah was really excited to revisit her gifts! She's also been big on dressing herself, so this picture is a great way to illustrate all of that! Her new vest from Auntie, high-heels from Santa, and "jewels" from Grandma Cindy...all paired with no pants and a hot pink purse! This picture is really hilarious to me!

This is the snow that we came home to! I heard that it was snowing a few days before Christmas, so this is what was left a week and a half later! That's a lot of snow! I was a little disappointed because once again, there was a White Christmas at my house when we were not there! In the seven Christmases that we have spent in the west, there's been snow at my house all but two Christmases...and those were the ones that we were home! I've never experienced a White Christmas before, so I am always a little disappointed when I miss one! Nevertheless, Hannah and I had a great time playing in the snow once we got home!

We went to the park and played, then went for a walk around the neighborhood with Choomi for a while. We spent New Years Eve with our friends Jamie and Zac that just had a baby! Hannah loves Rylee! They got some great photos, but they haven't sent them to use yet (at least not that I know of...I just thought that maybe I should check Jon's email)! We ate food, played games, and relaxed our way into the new year with great friends. Both of the girls (Hannah and Rylee) stayed up until midnight, although they may have snoozed a little in between! They both crashed immediately following all of the hoopla though! So cute!

I started back to school Jan. 3rd and am doing my student teaching now. I am having a great time with my seniors and am learning tons! We are finally getting adjusted to the schedule change and are managing to be out the door by 6:45 am! It will be a bit of a busy semester, but I am excited about it and everyday I am reminded that I will get to do that on my own really, really soon (I start applying for jobs in March)! I love teaching and being with the kids...I also LOVE the teacher's schedule. We have our first 3-day weekend of the semester this weekend! I am really looking forward to both Spring Break and Summer Break too! As soon as I get some more photos, I will do another post. I am trying to be a little more consistent these days, so we'll see how that goes!