Road Trip

 Minor rant: When you spend over $400/night on hotels for your giant family and break your road trip into 2 overnights each way because weather, a road trip is not a cost saver. I AM JUST SCARED TO FLY. Anyone want to go on a quick weekend vacay with me in the next couple months so I can practice flying before dance and dive nats? I AM SO FUN.

Truly, I have been in a BLACK MOOD since we left our house. MY  FAMILY IS SO LUCKY TO HAVE ME.

I love my car, though, you guys. We put the extra seat in the middle row and put Minnie in the middle of that row, and it is a game changer! She has TONS of space, and Jack and Dorothy (next to her on either side) have… enough.. space. Harry and Cooper are on the third row, and they, too, are ok. We put a car topper on top, and it is sort of windy between storms, so that’s freaky. We changed our route to avoid (MOST OF) the mountains and add a ridiculous stop (more about that tomorrow— don’t want to jinx it because it is a BUCKET LIST item for me, literally), and we are currently trying to dodge two giant storm bands and avoid night driving.

Pre-trip mani/pedi

Her little hands. 

Dorothy, too, of course, but we are right now white-knuckling it through a mountain tunnel (WILL OUR CAR TOPPER FIT?), and the picture I took of her at the salon won’t load. STORY OF HER LIFE.

They still love a crappy hotel pool.

Jack doesn’t, but Minnie asked him very nicely to “please lifeguard me,” so what could he do?

Girls’ room— Dorothy was hanging out with the boys, who had a bigger room

She really makes herself comfy

We had pizza twice yesterday. I ate a salad WITH my lunch pizza, but when dinner rolled around, I could NOT have pizza again, so I got a (terrible) salad and added boneless wings. LOL/sob. Today, I am going to try to eat like an adult. I missed hotel breakfast because we needed to leave fast (storms), but I HAVE had a super sugary Dunkin coffee and a Zbar— baby steps.

Monical’s has THE BEST side salads— the whole fam gets in on the act. It’s a gateway salad.

Sad Kentucky pizza place salad though? **sad trombone**

(I am still angry about yesterday's food— that’s how crabby I am, you guys).

Both trees were on the curb by 6pm YESTERDAY

 And! I have un-christmassed 4/7 beds with plans to do 2 more today! (Harry's can wait until he goes back to school. Hos room in an unbelievable disaster right now, and I have asked him to please keep the door closed).

I am still so proud of us for pulling off the car surprise! We parked it in our neighborhood for DAYS before The Big Day and made sure to walk by and turn it on (remote start for the win) and move it every now and then. We always planned to buy him a car before summer, and when the dealer had this one (2121 Kia Forte)  that was in our budget and in really good shape, we knew it was meant to be. I also really like buying certified used from Kia-- you can reinstate the OG warranty, and everything inside and out is covered until 2031 or 100K miles. This makes me feel much better about my kid driving far away from home. Plus it has roadside assistance, flat tire assist, etc etc etc.

Harry had fewer (and smaller) gifts than the rest of the kids, and his last present was a pair of gloves from Costco like the ones he used to borrow from my dad. The key was inside, and we asked him to try the gloves on to make sure they fit.

We had a fun Christmas Eve at our favorite Thai restaurant, and the kids opened gifts from Ben's parents. Dorothy got the sweatshirt she has been DYING for, so her holiday was basically made. Ben and I decided at the last minute to buy a few small things for each other, and Dorothy helped me shop. We decorated Santa cookies and made gingerbread houses from scratch.

The kids got me a Comfy

Minnie adores frosting

Christmas dinner!

A cozy morning

A weighted vest!!!

I made a flourless chocolate cake and ate myself literally sick.

DREAMS CAME TRUE all around

The elves use way too much tape.

Sisters.

Dorothy only wanted the sillies tthings.

Thank goodness someone still loves dolls.

We had our family yankee swap on Christmas Eve. The theme was purple.

Ugly sweater twinning.

Dinner

matchies!

They opened their stockings together. Satna delivers them to bedrooms.

Gingy houses

Our elves brought matching jammies (including Annabel and Minnie's dolly) and games

Santa cookies!

Ladies who lunch

Cheers!
 

(Jack took this with his new camera)

WE PULLED IT OFFFFFFFFFF! We are big red bow people now!

 

I was DYING to tell you that Ben's new car was a DECOY CAR to totally throw Harry off the scent of his AWESOME CHRISTMAS PRESENT because we both panicked that we spent way too long at the dealer the other day buying Harry's, and we decided the only way to cover our tracks was TO BUY ANOTHER CAR.

Holiday Things

We left 3/5 of the kids home yesterday, and almost all the cookies are gone. AND YOU ALL THOUGHT I MADE SO MANY (lol).

Julie made almost the exact same fudge I did, but hers has half the sugar and uses marshmallows, not marshmallow cream. Like Julie, I avoided the actual Nestle-branded chips. (You guys GOTTA make fantasy fudge-- it is so good. My dad used to make it, and I haven't in YEARS, but I do remember the year my grandpa died-- my dad made a batch almost every day when his dad was sick).

Ben bought himself a car on Saturday. It felt random to me at the time, but, in retrospect, he has been mentioning that he should trade in his 2022 hybrid Highlander before it hit 80K miles (he drives A LOT). (Srsly, we got that car in JUNE of 2022). Every time he said that I was like but I thought we were saving that car for Cooper, and we would drop the subject. So, I was only halfway paying attention. Really, though, that car has always been an awkward fit for us. It is not really comfy for all 7 because the third row is VERY cramped. My Pilot is just a teeny bit bigger, but that teeny bit is vital, it turns out. At the same time, it is kind oif big for one dude to be driving alone, and it is a tall car. Ben has very much NOT ENJOYED being pushed around by the wind on his most recent drives.

ANYWAY, he bought a super sporty looking 2025 Kia sedan (we are so old a sedan is sporty) with AWD (essential for a snowy 3+ hour commute) and lots of cute old man bells and whistles inside (does he love heating his steering wheel via app before he gets in the car? YES HE DOES). It gets better highway miles than his Highlander, and it is really comfortable for 2 kids and 2 adults and will be fine on Mondays when he drives Minnie, Dorothy, Dorothy's dance friend, and Coop on the drop off/pick up loop.

We drove it to visit my mom on Sunday, and it was great-- although I was anxious about being so LOW. It has been 15 years since I was in a car (not a van or SUV) on the highway.

Cooper got to be a judge at Jack's high school alumni dive meet

At the alumni meet, the kids make dive lists for each other and include the most ridiculous dives. LIKE THIS ONE, a classic that found a new audience

Dorothy is thoroughly enjoying winter break

HARRY IS HOME! With either dead bodies or LAUNDRY!

We had a great time at my mom's. Jon and Caleb were there, and they modeled the matching fam Lands End vests we got them

Minnie had a blast

Ben tried out Annabel's toy

And we all tried really hard to put these jammies on Scooter (we also tried front legs first)