Only 360 More Days Until Christmas!

I know this because Grandpa Don kept a close count for us starting Christmas morning. We had a wonderful Christmas and it was so nice to enjoy it with my parents here and not just ourselves alone. I know some people really like that, but not me. All my Christmas memories are of lots of family around, otherwise it feels like something is missing.

Our morning started about 6:30am when Alton woke up. We were mean parents and made him stay in our bed until 7am. Then everyone else started to wake up so we headed downstairs. Alton and Alayna's reactions were textbook of course. Avery could only take in one gift at a time. The first thing he saw that Santa had left him was a garage all set up with cars ready to drive all over. He headed straight for that and stayed there playing until we finally tried to get him to notice his other gifts. That didn't really work even though almost every gift he got had four or more wheels or else was a book about four or more wheels. Pa Pa (my Mom) ended up opening most of his presents. Rob decided that half of them were to be rewrapped and regifted on his 2nd birthday which is January 17th.

When presents were done, we headed to the kitchen for a big breakfast (or at least it was to us), then about two hours later, we ate a big lunch. Yes, I did have meat at this meal, a large organic beautiful ham. I have really fallen off the wagon lately. We stayed around the house the rest of the day just relaxing and eating and eating.

The next day we headed out of town for a trip to D.C. We wanted to take in some of the sights and just get an overall feel for the place. Because we did not want to risk another $100 parking ticket (which by the way, I got out of), we opted to take the metro. Of everything we did that day, that would have by far been the most amusing experience to any spectator outside our family. We were stressed out just trying to purchase the little fare cards out of the vending machine thing. Then going up the escalator with 3 kids, a stroller and everyone holding their coats, well that was fun in itself. By far however, the biggest challenge of the day was getting on the metro itself. It got there pretty quick after we were standing there waiting for it. The doors open and people get on really fast. The kids hopped on first and I followed with Avery in the stroller. The metro is not particularly stroller friendly. We walked aways down the length of the car bumping people as we went trying to find seats. There was only one. Alton sat down, the doors closed and off the metro went. This left Alayna and I grabbing onto whatever we could. Everyone seemed to be looking at us. We were the only ones standing and so I felt as if I had messed up somewhere. I probably did look a little silly clutching the stroller and bracing myself with one foot about 12" behind the other. I looked behind me to see my Parents and Rob happily riding along about 3 yards away. I didn't know that the metro would stop every two minutes and that more and more people got on. I soon realized that standing was a normal thing and that grabbing on to bars and hanging over the people sitting down is also quite normal.

About halfway through the ride, Avery decided that he was done sitting in his stroller and began wriggling and fussing. He is by far the wiggliest child I've ever had. This called for a pass the kid to the other parent while riding the metro scenario which meant I had to actually talk; which by the way, no one really does on the metro except for the guy wearing the ski hat with the ponybob on the end who had been carrying on a conversation with himself the whole way. I raised my voice to get Rob's attention and everyone not wearing an iPod began to watch us attempt the pass. We accomplished this fairly smoothly. Avery was happy and our ride was soon over.

After making our way through a couple of Smithsonian buildings, it was time to go. This time, feeling that I was now metro savvy, and able to sit in a seat, I actually enjoyed the ride back. I felt pretty proud of myself until I watched the calm and collected woman who did not speak english, get on with her four children and very large stroller. She did not have three other adults to assist her like I did either. Oh well, someday that will be me after I get a few more rides under my belt.