Jason had to work on Christmas Eve, so we didn't head out until after he got home from work. We drove up to Dallas to stay at Aunt Shelley and Uncle Jim's house for the night and also to pick up Michael (who drove down from Oklahoma) before heading out to Virginia early the next morning. That's right people - we underwent a 21 hour drive from Dallas to Virginia starting early Christmas morning! Unfortunately for us - everything except The Waffle House was closed for our dining adventures. We stopped pretty frequently to get gas and let the preggo girl out to stretch her legs. We had planned on stopping halfway in Tennessee, but we were anxious to get to Virginia and not waste what little vacation time we had on driving and sleeping - so we kept going until we finally arrived at Jason's parents house around 6-7am the morning after Christmas.
The girls playing at the BX while I got my eyebrows done a couple days before we left San Antonio...they're so cute when they're not fighting!! :)
Okay - it's time for my lazy-writing format:
22 Dec - Kristin and I finished up our week of double school lessons (to make up for the 2 1/2 week break we were about to take for Christmas). I know Christmas breaks are usually longer, but I have to account for the 3 week break we're going to take when the next baby comes in February!! I don't even know if 3 weeks will be enough to get situated with a third kid in the house!!! Eek!!
23 Dec - Did massive amounts of laundry and started packing for our trip. We let the girls open up their stockings from us and their Christmas presents from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil - since we weren't getting back from Virginia until January 4th.
Jason looking rather disappointed that he didn't get a stocking of his own, so he pulled off his sock and pretended he had one. :)
The girls are most pleased with their tiny stockings filled with a couple little toys and some candy
Getting ready to open their presents from Grandma Christie and Grandpa Neil
And they're off!
Yay! It's the dollhouse she has been wanting for over a year now...
Opening the rest of their presents (furniture for all of the rooms in the dollhouse)
Whoa! That's a lot of dollhouse stuff!!
Poor Katie was already in bed by the time I got the dollhouse put together, but she was thrilled to get her greedy little hands on it the next day!!
24 Dec - Jason woke up an hour late for work after our alarm failed to go off. This is a first for Jason - EVER!! He has never been late to work or school or anything - not ever in all of the almost 12 years of our marriage! We couldn't understand why the alarm wouldn't have gone off - the power didn't go out or anything. I quickly solved the mystery when Katie woke up a few hours later. She came out of her room, walked down the hall and into our room - where she then proceeded directly to Jason's alarm and promptly flipped the switch from off to on without batting an eyelash! I couldn't believe it! She didn't spend anytime at all fiddling with it. She knew just what button to flip and she did it - in less than two seconds! She must have flipped the alarm switch from on to off the night before after bath-time (without us noticing of course). Anyways - I finished up packing before Jason got home from work - of course I left it all for Jason to pack into the car. I can't do everything with this giant belly in the way!!
We left for Dallas around 3pm and got in around 8 or 9pm that night. Aunt Shelley, Uncle Jim and Grandma Capra all had some presents for us to open too! It was so sweet!!! Jason and Mike went to bed pretty early to get some sleep for the drive, but I can never resist staying up to talk and cackle late into the night - which I ended up doing with Aunt Shelley while she wrapped a ton of presents and Uncle Jim put them under the tree.
25 Dec - Jesus' Birthday!! Woohoo!!! :) After watching Aunt Shelley, Uncle Jim and the kids open up the rest of their presents, we ate a yummy breakfast prepared by Uncle Jim before heading out. We spent the entire day in the car - 21 hours straight (+ stops) - until we finally arrived at Jason's parents house the following morning on the 26th around 6am.
26 Dec - After talking and cackling for a couple hours, I finally decided to take a shower. Then we all drove a couple minutes down the road to visit Angie and the kids and to see her new house. It was beautiful!!! She has done an amazing job with all of the remodeling, painting and decorating! Then we had some Christmas dinner leftovers (from Angie's Christmas dinner).
27 Dec - I spent the whole day with Jason, Mike, Joe, Jake and Nate at two Party City stores and three Target stores planning and buying stuff for our Capra Christmas Extravaganza games and festivities. We took a short break at Five Guys for hamburgers and fries and then we got back to work. I also snuck in a little Christmas shopping for Joe and his fiance Dillon (since we were matched up with them to exchange presents). Not long after getting back from a day with the guys, I headed back out again with some of the girls - Mom, Angie, Rachel and Dillon - for a little more shopping. This is the first time I've ever gone out shopping right after Christmas - I never knew about all of the amazing sales going on after Christmas - mostly on Christmas stuff, but still!! It was amazing!! 75% off at my favorite store - Target!! I'll definitely start getting out to catch the sales in the years to come!! We spent the rest of the night getting ready for "Christmas" the following morning. Yes - everyone waited to celebrate Christmas until after we arrived, so Jason could organize and direct all of the games and festivities - his favorite thing to do. He's a great Christmas Cheermeister!! :)
28 Dec - went to bed at 430am and woke up 2 1/2 hours later to take a shower and start the Christmas Extravaganza! Jason had the whole morning and afternoon planned out to include the usual: waking up Grandpa, entrance to Christmas, rounds of present-opening with intermissions for food, games and prizes. It's always SO much fun!!! This year's theme: Ninjas vs. Pirates. This year James and Tish decided to spend their first Christmas as a married couple at home alone in Germany, so we invited them to the party via Skype/web cam. I can't imagine they had as much fun as we did though because they had to sit in front of the computer for 4+ hours watching us have all the fun!! Maybe they'll come next year - although we're thinking of going to Disney World for Christmas next time around, so we'll have to see if that's of any interest to our world traveling brother and sister-in-law. :)
Later on that evening, I went to Target (yet again) with Angie, Jake and Rachel. I met up with my sweet friend Laura and her family while we were there (they were on their way up to Pennsylvania to visit their family for a late Christmas as well). They followed me back to Jason's parents house to visit for a little while. It was supposed to only be a 15 minute visit, but it ended up lasting about 2 hours. Who were we kidding? We can't even get off the phone in less than 2 hours!! ;)
After they headed out, we ate dinner (yummy Chinese takeout compliments of Mom and Dad) and then spent the rest of the evening around the fire pit with family and friends talking and cackling. This was also my first evening to experience swollen ankles. It was horrible!!!! I was on my feet so much this trip - I pretty much had swollen ankles for the rest of our visit. :(
Forming a line to run down the hall and wake up Grandpa/Daddy on "Christmas" morning
Wake up Grandpa!!!
Michael seems to fill the role of Christmas mascot quite well. Last year he was the Christmas Gecko. This year he appears to be some sort of patriotic-Christmas-ninja-flag-and-bald eagle-bearer...or something like that... ;)
Jason enters after his mascot gets the crowd ready and introduces him as the Christmas Cheermeister
Shawn listens intently
Kristin being her normal cheesy self
Katie spending some time with Grandpa
Jason inviting James and Tish to the party via webcam
One of the many games - which team can blow the first bubble? Ninjas win.
Another game - which team can put their puzzle together first?
Pirates falling behind...
Ninjas pull ahead and win when Dad jumps in to help and gives them an unfair advantage... ;)
Mom and Dad
Tori opens her present from Uncle Jason and Aunt Tricia
Shawn poses for a picture with his present from Uncle Jason and Aunt Tricia
Angie with her little presents from Rachel and Nate
Rachel and Nate
Jacob is quite pleased with his amazing pogo stick from Mom and Dad
Katie falls asleep in Rachel's suitcase after she is sent to the bedroom for being a bad girl. How cute....
Outside for a wet and messy game of who can knock down the opposing team's pirate ship with water balloons first?
Ninjas win again...
Jason starting another round of present-opening after the last game left him a bit drenched... Look at those freshly shaved manly legs of his... ;)
Kristin was eager to try on one of her new outfits from her soon-to-be Auntie Dillon
Kristin opening one of her presents from her Grandma and Grandpa Capra
Danielle trying out her new present from Mom and Dad
Dillon posing for a picture with her present from me and Jason
Joe is most pleased with his present from me and Jason
Rachel posing with her present from Angie
Danielle hiding behind the couch awaiting her appearance to bring forth someone's final present (Jason's newest addition to Capra Christmas is announcing that each person has no more presents and then someone pops up randomly around the room and declares, "Oooohh really?" and presents their final present) I wish I could have gotten a picture of Joe presenting Angie's final present as he yelled out "Oh really??" through the skylight window looking down into the sunroom where we were opening presents, but my dumb camera was too slow to turn on!!!!
Michale trying to grab at his new snowboard from James and Tish (which they have yet to mail out to him). He can't complain though. He didn't even know that he was matched up with James and Tish until after we got to Virginia, so he didn't mail them anything at all. At least they mailed him out some of his other presents - snowboarding jacket, pants and gear etc.
Jason awarding the grand prize to the winning team
Jason opens his presents after Capra Christmas is all over
He looks most pleased...
Jacob putting himself up for sale at Target - on clearance even!
Hailey, Kristin, Drew and Katie posing for a reunion picture
Laura, me, Hailey and Kristin (the original team when we lived in Maryland together) ;)
Me and Laura-poo
Jason and Heath (who haven't seen each other since they graduated from medical school)
Our annual family picture with just the kids and grandkids
Of course this is the best picture we could manage after squeezing Mom and Dad in. Rrrrr...
29 Dec - Spent some of the day at Angie's house. I really wanted to help do something in the house while the guys put together some shelves for Angie, but all I seemed to accomplish was cleaning out the pantry... Later on that night, I found myself back at Target with Mike and Jake before heading back home to spend time with the family.
30 Dec - Went back to Angie's house determined to get more done than I did the night before. But all I accomplished was getting Angie's thousands of DVDs up on her new shelves in the theater room (in a somewhat organized fashion). Then Angie and I went to Target to pick up a few things (are you noticing a trend here?) and I returned Dillon's gimp netbook that Jason and I got her for Christmas (it had some manufacturer's defect where it was supposed to have a built in camera, but it was missing). Which then began my quest to find a better netbook to replace the one I returned! After I got Angie back home, some of us (Mom, Jason and I, Mike, Jake, Danielle, Joanna, Julia and our girls) headed out to Rachel and Nate's house down in Charlottesville (an hour away). It's their first house, so it's a little small, but it is SO cute!!! The people who had it before them took really good care of it and Rachel has decorated it beautifully! It was so cute and cozy!! I'm starting to wonder if Jason and I will be the only Capras who don't own their own house!!! Oh well - base housing has been good to us (well - easy anyways). ;) Rachel made homemade pizza for dinner. Afterwards, Rachel, Jake, Danielle, Julia and I went to Rachel's local Target for a little more shopping. Eek! This has ended up being some sort of Target shopping spree vacation!! ;) I really had to refrain myself though - we didn't have a lot of room coming here, so there wasn't a lot of room for purchases to take back home with me!!
31 Dec - Went out shopping with Mom and Angie to 3 Targets, Kohls and 2 Best Buys! We were out running errands, birthday shopping for Dad and I was still on my quest to find Dillon a replacement for her Christmas present! We were about to head home when I finally found her a better netbook. I was so relieved. Who wants to be responsible for giving a gimpy present to someone??!! How embarrassing!!
We got home in time to start some New Year's Eve partying, but it was short-lived (for me, Rachel and Mike anyways ) when we decided to go back out to yet ANOTHER Target to find Dad his birthday presents. His birthday is on the 2nd, but since we were heading back home that day, we wanted to celebrate it the day before on the 1st. After we had finally acquired our presents, we headed back home to finish up the night with some New Year's Eve celebrating!! The Sellers (close friends of our family for a long time now) came by to celebrate with us. We played ping pong, table games and pigged out on all the yummy appetizer foods that Dad picked up at the grocery store. Then we finished out the evening laughing at Nate and Jason who both got sick from drinking too much. Nate had too much vodka and Captain Morgans (ugh!) and Jason had too much wine. Poor guys. Oh well - serves them right for thinking they were men enough to take on so much alcohol!! Surprisingly they both woke up the next morning perfectly fine!!! I couldn't believe it!
1 Jan - The first day of 2009!! I spent a lot of it doing laundry and getting our things packed for the following day's trip back home. :( I somehow managed to squeeze in a little more shopping with Mom, Rachel, Julia and Emily. I mostly went for support. ;) To help Mom find some things to organize the house. We got back to the house in time for dinner and to celebrate Dad's birthday. Later on, some of us decided to go out for some bowling (Mike, Jake, Mark, Rachel, Nate, Angie, Dillon, me and Danielle). Jason decided to stay home and go to bed early, so he could take the first shift of driving the next morning.
Katie enjoying one last night with her favorite cousin Anna-bean.
Dillon trying to look like me by stuffing a bowling ball under her dress. :)
Getting some lovin' from Angie ;)
Me and the girls (Danielle, Dillon, me, Angie and Rachel)
Me and the boys (Mike, my nephew Mark, Jake and Nate)
One more bowling ball belly picture for the road!! (Me, Rachel and Dillon)
2 Jan - We set out on the long drive home at a horrendous hour - 5am. Ugh. Poor Jason took the first shift. He drove about 8 hours before switching off with me. I took the next shift after lunch. I drove about 5 hours before we stopped for dinner. I had one more hour to drive, but I decided to get sick right before we ate. I spent a good chunk of time in the bathroom at Cracker Barrell. It was horrible!!!! Throwing up is gross enough already, but then to have to throw up in public bathrooms...ugh. I don't even want to think about it and relive the nightmare. Needless to say - it was not an enjoyable rest of the drive back to Aunt Shelley's. Sniff sniff. I threw up at each gas station stop and I even threw up on the side of the road once (just to keep things interesting). Poor Michael - he drove his shift from dinner on (which lasted for 8 hours until about 2 or 3am). Then to make things worse, Katie threw up in the back all over our blankets and pillows right before we got to Aunt Shelley's. Poor little girl. :( What a crappy drive!!! We slept for a few hours at Aunt Shell's before getting up the next morning.
3 Jan - Woke up to a delicious-looking breakfast that Uncle Jim prepared (that I was a bit too nervous to eat up - due to my upset stomach from the night before). Afterwards, I went out with Aunt Shelley, Becky, Rissy and Kristin for a little shopping at Kohls - where Aunt Shelley proceeded to be a bad girl and buy new outfits for Kristin, Katie and even for Caleb!!! I felt so bad, but everything was so cute! And the kids were overdue for some new clothes!! We spent the rest of the night BBQing with Uncle Jim and Aunt Shelley and their close friends the Salters before packing up the car, watching a movie with the kids in the theater room and going to bed.
4 Jan - We headed back home to good 'ol San Antonio (cringe). Well okay - it isn't that bad, but I always prefer living closer to family!! We got back in time for me to pick up a few things at the commissary while Jason unpacked our things and watched the girls. I picked up Jack in the Box for dinner on the way home and we let the girls open their presents from us after we finished eating.
Now that we're finally settled from our trip, it won't last very long because in a few short days we'll be heading down to Corpus Christi, TX to stay with Jason for 4 weeks while he does his pediatric anesthesia rotation at a hospital down there. By the time we get back from there, I'll be 38 weeks pregnant!! I don't know if I'll have a chance to get settled and into a routine before the next baby comes!! Eek!! Talk about exhaustion!! Yikes!! :)
1 comment:
As little as I see you now on here, I know I will never see you after Caleb arrives! Not that I should talk!
Aww, how sad...I could have made a stocking for Jason too! (Did the girls actually wind up taking anything home from their stocking? I figured with all the kids in such a big house, all their little toys might have been lost forever, haha).
Awww, she wanted her daddy to stay home for Christmas Eve!
Speaking of Skype, why are you never signed into that anymore? I know have a laptop with wecam built in, how are we supposed to see you if you aren't signed in so I can call?!
That pogo stick was awesome...I still can't believe how much that thing was though!
Can you believe how long it had been since they'd seen each other! I can't! All I have to say is thank goodness time flies!
Awww, my poor Tricia! You are supposed to do that in the beginning of your pregnancy, not the end!
(I bet that car smelled great!)
Dang, I have never heard of anyone shop SO much, and all at the same place! You must be sick of Target! Speaking of, that's where we're headed now =p--
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