Our Christmas vacation for 2013 was an eventful 3 weeks of travel. We had an easy flight, perhaps the easiest in recent years. I sat next to Finn on the way out of Victoria and he had a couple of notable quotes like: "Oh mom, its like a lego town is down there" and "Oh, look we could go dancing in the clouds". Good trip in.
We stayed with Auntie Carrie, Uncle Scott, and Quinn (2). The kids had a blast, especially the boys.. they teamed up to do about anything.. loved having similar p.j.s, shared baths. One of the novelties of being in a new house was tv commercial watching.. and exposure to "Elf on the Shelf".
We had a wonderful sleigh ride via a horse drawn sled and I have some pictures of this somewhere. At the end of the ride, the kids got to go talk to Santa. Finn just wanted a surprise or two and Zoe badly wanted an "Elf on the shelf" of her own, sharing Quinn's was not enough.
Then we headed off to Las Vegas for a week in the sun. We went to the small pool every day, enjoyed bath stuff from Lush, did some shopping, saw "Frozen", and did a fair amount of walking. We decided to avoid the big shows, waiting for Finn to get a little bigger first (the summer's 5 minute trip to a Laser Show worried us).
We returned from Las Vegas on the 23rd of December. Being in the desert for so long, we were all tired of dry skin and noses. Zoe had a bloody nose the whole flight back. She handled it pretty well, but there was a little drama and trama. On the night we returned from Vegas, Finn cried himself to sleep because he missed home and the cats… At that point, I too wished the trip was over.. the air was dry, the air was smoggy (70 micrograms of particles per cubic meter of air, which received a "unhealthy" warning). Too long. But Christmas was around the corner and we all rallied.
On the morning of the 24th.. Zoe's Elf on the shelf showed up for a one day appearance next to the Bailey's elf.. Zoe named her Velvet Snowflake and the look on her face was priceless. It was the look of ultimate joy when she saw her, the thing parents wish they could always give their kids.
On the 24th, Bruce, Carrie, and I spent the day zooming around last minute shopping without kids since Auntie Rebecca was willing to watch the three kids. There was only one little thing where Zoe bruised Finn with a pinch. THis was followed by lots of sledding (recent snow storms had provided better snow than before we went to Las Vegas).
Of course due to dodging in and out of town, Christmas Eve involved a marathon wrapping session, we were up until 1:30am! It was definitely not my usual prepared self working here.
Christmas was lovely, as usual the kids opened/received way too much and dread set in on how to make it all home. Favored gifts this year were: lego, Equestria Girls (my little pony), Transformers, Goldie Box toy and Rosie Revere, Engineer book.
We spent a few more days with the Bailey's and then went up to my parents (Nana & Grandpa's).. it took two trips in our rental car (trucks were not available) to get all the stuff and luggage up. We had a great time at Mom and Dad's.. enjoying a lot of spa time in their hot tub.
In the end we had arrived with 4 bags and left with 7. We also were amazed to not have to have paid for bags.. not sure how that happened.
