Christmas 2012

Our Christmas this year was a little different from years past because we went to Colorado for the Perkins Family Reunion from Dec. 21-27, so we had to switch things up a bit to make it all work. Usually, we have to squeeze all of our Christmas gatherings with family all into a few days, but not this year. I acutally like how it all worked out because I got all my shopping done early. It all seemed a bit less hectic and stressfull, which was nice.

We ended up going to Dallas to do Christmas with my family on the first weekend in December. It was a whirlwind of a trip but fun! It also happened to be Grandpa's birthday that weekend, so we started out by celebrating his birthday at Casa Milagro, the restaurant they go to every Friday night. We had a fun day the next day opening gifts, playing games, eating good food, and just being together. Then, we headed over to Mammy's Saturday night for our annual Christmas cookie decorating. Sunday, we opened more gifts with Mammy and got to hang out a bit before heading back to Austin that afternoon.

Since we were going to be traveling by airplane and would be away from home on Christmas day, we asked Santa if he could come to our house on the 15th, and he kindly said yes! So, we celebrated our family Christmas early and still included all our little traditions. The boys thought it was great that Santa came to our house early. It was like a special treat from Santa! Eli even wrote a letter for Santa, which said, "We hope that you have a safe trip home. Signature______. Are we the first? Yes or No____. To Santa from The Perkins".  Santa even signed it and told us that we weren't the first ones. I thought we were for sure!

The afternoon we had our Christmas, John had to go to Dresden for work. He was gone the 15th-19th, which means that a couple days after he got back, we all had to leave for CO. This was the first time that it wasn't too hard when he was gone, thankfully!  Maybe it's because I was trying to pack for our CO trip the whole time. The night we picked John up from the airport, we thought it would be fun to go see The Trail of Lights. It was a great idea until John's plane was delayed, which meant that we got to the trail of lights late, which means the boys were up late. I just wanted to squeeze it in and make it work, but it was a bad idea. To top it off, there were so many people there that night that we could barely walk and the boys couldn't see the light displays very well at all. The Zilker tree was fun to see though! Oh well, a memory was made in the end!

Ah, the Perkins Family Reunion...so glad that's over and done with! It was great to see everyone and fun to be in the snowy mountains, however, the stomach virus that we all passed around was awful! Out of the 21 of us, only two that I know of didn't get sick. I was the last adult to get it, so the whole time I felt like I was walking around in fear of getting the bug. It got me day we left, but luckily it wasn't too bad. We did get to do some sledding, and the cousins had plenty of playtime with each other, including some craft time and snowball fights. Our travel time to and from Colorado was miserable due to flight delays and getting home at 1:00 am when we returned. I think it took us a full week to recover after we got back from our trip. We will look back at the PFR 2012 and laugh...someday!

Here is Max in the cutest snow suit ever! This snowsuit may have made our trip all worth it!


Here's Jed at his Christmas program at school. He's right in the middle with the Spiderman Santa shirt. I loved how they sang this song...YES! Jesus Loves Me!...

This is Mammy's dancing/singing snowman, which Max loved to play over and over and dance to it!

Spring Break/Seattle

Bubba and Max

A couple weeks ago was spring break. John and I decided to go to Seattle to surprise our friend, Bubba, for his 40th birthday. So, I took the boys up to Dallas on Tuesday so that Max and I could spend some time with family. Then, on Thursday evening, Max and I met John at the airport (he flew up from Austin), and the three of us headed to Seattle. Eli and Jed stayed with my mom (Mammy) and got to spend time with family while we were gone. It was cousin Grayson's 12th birthday, so they got to go to his two birthday parties! They did other fun things like go the aquarium and see The Lorax at the movies. They had a blast and got lots of family time!

We had so much fun in Seattle, too! Bubba was very surprised when we walked into his house Thursday night. He had no idea we were coming. What made it even better was that he does that kind of stuff to people all the time, so we got to do it to him. It was nice to spend time with Bubba and Anna. We stayed at a little Bungalow a few houses down from them. Their neighbors rent out their basement for visitors, so it was perfect. We even got the neighbor discount! I was expecting it to be rainy and cold the whole time since that's what the forecast said. However, each afternoon, we got some nice sunny weather. It wasn't too cold either. One morning, it snowed huge giant flakes, but it wasn't too cold even then. Bubba said it rarely snows there, too. When it was snowing we were at the top of a hotel where Bub's parents were staying in downtown Seattle. It was really pretty watching the snow in the city from their room.

look closely at the big snowflakes

Bubba's party was fun. They rented out the community center in their neighborhood and everyone played dodge ball. I didn't play because I was wearing Max in the Ergo carrier. I'm glad I had an excuse because I'm not a huge fan of dodge ball, but it was fun to watch! The guests were all supposed to wear their best workout attire, Bub style. John wore his old Baylor basketball uniform, and everyone got a kick out of that. After the game, we all went to Bubbanna's to hang out. What a fun memory!

Max did great on his first vacation. He was happy being carted around the city, and just hanging out with friends. He was a happy baby on the plane as well. He mostly slept or ate or smiled at the people near us. Having only one kid with me feels like nothing now! When I'd tell people we were going to Seattle, I'd say "John and I are going...oh yeah, and Max, too". Max is just so laid back and easy...or maybe it's because he's our third and we're pros...or both!

One regret on our trip...we didn't take enough pictures!