Holiday Fanfare

Three more days until my family hits the road to visit family 1200+ miles away. It's quite the adventure with a 22 month old! He's a trooper until about mile 100, and then it's 17 hours of trying this or that tactic to keep him occupied and unaware of how his little body must ache from a 5-point car seat! Ugh! I can imagine, since I hate sitting for more than an hour at a time. Your butt really starts to get annoyed with the lack of movement, and then the bladder starts yelling at you, "Pull over and let me do my duty!" But, have you seen gas prices lately?! Why would I put myself through double cost flying and entertaining the little one 1200 miles up? On the road we can pull over and stretch, play at rest stops and spend a fraction of the cost on travel expenses. We drive a compact car with a standard transmission (GO CLUTCH!) that gets roughly 37-40 mpg highway, so we enjoy the savings at the cost of a somewhat restless child. In the end, we drive through the snow covered Wasatch mountains to find ourselves pulling up to my parent's house, covered in snow and lit with Christmas lights. I'm sure by the end of the visit I'll curse under my frozen breath as I'm scraping snow off my car (but it beats scraping Oklahoma ice). Inside the home is filled with yummy smells, Christmas music, 3 noisy bro's, and lots of decor. It's cozy, it's warm, it's home for Christmas! I can't wait.
(A last year pic of the snow storm that hit the morning after we arrived to my parent's home)