maryland: part 1- Christmas

The last week of December, BG and I along with my brother and his family, packed it up to head the seven hours north to my parents' house in Maryland. I was beyond bummed that Mr. P was unable to get off work and go, but I was glad that BG and I could go since we hardly ever get to go up there.

Although after that car ride with a two year old and a six month old, it may be years before it happens again.

We were supposed to get on the road by 3:30 when I got off work. Somehow at 7 pm we were eating dinner at Subway; 10 minutes from my house. Yea. Finally we got on the road. I had hoped that by driving at night, BG would sleep and we wouldn't have to stop too often.

Ha.

First of all, all the excitement of all of us being in one car was too much for her and she was NOT about to close her eyes and miss a second.

Second of all, I forgot that we had a baby in the car. A baby who also wouldn't sleep. And who decided very quickly in that she was over being in her carseat.

Did I mention we had just crossed the North Carolina border?

My sister in law, Kiki, started feeling sick somewhere in North Carolina. So we pulled over into a rest area (ten minutes after we stopped at a gas station) to switch seats. By this point, both girls were overtired and just plain foul. They didn't want anything to do with being in those carseats for a second longer. I finally had to switch both tvs off and sing "You are My Sunshine" over and over and over while draped over both carseats stroking each baby's head.

Longest car ride ever.

But once both kids were asleep, it was actually kind of fun.

I haven't gotten to spend too much time with Kiki and this was a great opportunity to just talk and get to know her. And the three of us gabbed the whole way up there. It was kind of awesome. And fun.

The first two days we were up there, we didn't do too much.

We were going to do Christmas our second day there, but Kiki couldn't wait for BG to open up her gift, so BG got a little mini Christmas our first morning. She absolutely loved the easel that her aunt and uncle got her and we spent the rest of the morning lazing around letting the girls play, playing dress up with some of mine and Uncle Marine's old clothing items, and just hanging around the house.
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We did venture out that afternoon for a fabulous lunch at a whole in the wall place just down from my parents and to do a bit of shopping. BG was in rare form though which lead to major meltdowns (on her and my part, oops) and we headed home pretty quickly.

We did our family Christmas the next morning. We put the girls in matching jammies and had them come down and see everything and did the whole she-bang. They loved it. We tried to get a few pictures of the girls in their matching jams, but they were a tough crowd. We finally managed to get a few decent ones before they both only wanted to check out the gifts.
We had a total blast.

We spent the rest of the day just letting the girls play and hanging out together. It was kind of nice not to cram fifty million things into each day and get the chance to just relax. This was also the first time that my parents had been able to be around both of their grandkids at the same time so I know they were loving it.

It was a perfect Christmas. Well, a perfect December 29th. But the date doesn't matter right?!