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Christmas time adventures
Posted on 2008.12.30 at 22:50Current Mood:
satisfied
Pho toes!
We got out on the road at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday before Christmas. Penelope didn't even wake up as Lee took her out of bed and buckled her into her car seat. She finally woke as the sun rose, and by then we were well into Alabama.
We might even have made it into Mississippi before our first stop, which was at a pretty remote truck stop where all the patrons turned and watched us pull into our parking space. Was it the Connecticut plate? The Toyota emblem? The simple unfamiliarity of us? Whatever it was, it made us very interesting to everyone there!
Overall, however, the road trip passed without incident. Our directions took us over a lot of non-Interstate highway, which was pretty cool. We got to see towns, and signs like this:
We listened to a bunch of episodes of This American Life. Penelope did very well in the car, and fussed only minimally. We did our best to stop plenty of times without lingering unnecessarily. We finally grabbed milkshakes at a Whataburger outside of Tulsa and allowed lots of time for Penelope to run around and stretch her legs and admire this giant fish tank with an antique Whataburger man display:
We made it to our hotel in Ponca City around 10 o'clock, amazing even ourselves at what great time we made!
We got plenty of rest that night and took our time getting going the next morning. Enjoyed a continental breakfast; did some Christmas shopping; had lunch at Chili's; met Lee's parents for milkshakes at Braum's. Penelope got re-acquainted with her Grandma and Grandpa Emerson.
While we were there, I got P dressed in her Christmas dress, and then she and I went to the single Catholic church in town for Christmas Eve Mass. We left Lee to continue to hang out with his parents; the family was scheduled to meet for dinner, so the timing worked out great.
The church was packed, and the ushers showed Penelope and me to one of the very last empty seats. However, Penelope was less than interested in staying seated there. I managed to keep her occupied, distracted, or at least quiet until about the responsorial psalm, when her noise level forced me to remove us to the narthex for the remainder of the Mass. We were in good company; several other parents with their well-dressed and fidgety toddlers stood around with us. Penelope still wasn't thrilled to be there, so after communion, we stepped out. I think most of the parents of the fidgety toddlers did the same.
I tried to get some nice pictures of Penelope outside the church. She used to be very responsive to the camera, but she has outgrown that and now largely ignores me when I point the lens at her and start singing, "Penelope! PeNELope! Sweetie! Hey, Penelope! HONEY!"
To make up for skipping out on the end of Mass, I played Christmas songs and sang them loudly as we drove to the restaurant to meet the family. Lee was still with his parents, picking up his grandpa, when we arrived, but his brothers were there with their wives, plus Penelope's cousins Rachel and Cortney. Penelope met them once before, when we were in Oklahoma in January or February for Lee's grandmother's funeral, and I doubt she remembers, but she took to them immediately, as if she saw them every day. She's normally a little goosey around strangers. Maybe she could just tell they were her family. Lee arrived with his mom and dad and grandpa before too long, and we had a nice dinner.
She's not picking her nose in that one. I'm not saying she doesn't pick her nose, or even that I haven't caught her picking her nose in (numerous) pictures; she's just not doing it in that picture.
Penelope was sure to close out the festivities with a nice show of floor-rolling and wailing, as is her current custom.
After dinner, we visited with Lee's grandpa at the assisted living facility for a bit, and then we left town for Enid.
Christmas morning, we went over to Lee's parents' house.
Penelope is getting pretty good at stairs--she even instinctively grabbed the rail!
There are lots of toys at Grandma's, and cousins Rachel and Cortney live right next door. Penelope enjoyed her cousins a lot, and she had more than enough things to play with and look at to keep her busy for the next millennium.
Grandma also has... more cats and dogs than I think I can even remember! Penelope was in hog heaven. She is a big fan of dogs and cats. And one of these cats was actually a fan of her, too! This little guy, named Victor, was very affectionate towards Penelope, and he liked to follow her around and play with her and let her rest her cheek on his fur.
When present-opening time came, Penelope needed a little assistance at first to open her gifts, but after that, she became a pro. She even learned to say, "Ooo! Ooo!" as she unwrapped.
There were lots of enticing goodies to nibble on. Gwen made some very excellent desserts, including a most memorable peppermint cheesecake and some chocolate cream cheese truffles. Nom.
Here are Gwen and David:
In all the commotion, I somehow failed to get a good picture of Eric and Rhonda, or of Rachel and Cortney. There was a dizzying amount of picture-taking going on, anyway. Maybe someone can send me some pictures!
Penelope got quite a haul: books and bath toys; two dolls who laugh and one who came with her own bath tub and the ability to urinate; clothes. Here, she savors her goodies:
She also discovered that she is a big fan of candy canes.
A few more from Christmas day:
The next day, Rachel and Cortney stayed with Penelope while I went with Lee's mom to the thrift store and Lee went with his dad to check out his dad's old Monroe. Later in the day, we met up with some friends for dinner and drinks while Penelope stayed with her grandparents. It was the first time we had been out in the evening together as adults since my company Christmas party last year!
After breakfast Saturday, it was time to hit the road, this time quite a bit later than on the trip up, with all of us feeling much more fatigued. And while we had good weather for most of the day, by evening, the rain was falling hard. Those charming non-Interstate highways became thoroughfares for deluged woodland creatures looking for high ground. Penelope became very, very ready to stop for the night, but it was a long time before there was any place to stop. We finally found relief at the Super 8 in Tallulah, Louisiana.
A truck stop pic:
We made it home before dark on our second day of travel, and Penelope got to open her presents here.
A book on her favorite topic:
She even shared her apple with Donovan! She was preoccupied with her candy cane.
Today we saw Blair and Jason and Nora, and Penelope said, "Ooo! Ooo!" again as she opened gifts from them. But she was also in a very, very crabby mood and let the entire Chinese restaurant know it for a protracted period of time. She has been pretty congested with a persistent cough, which has worsened slightly in the last few days. The cough wakes her up at night, so she slept badly last night and didn't nap for a long time today. I hope that improves soon!
So, yay! Merry Christmas!
We got out on the road at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday before Christmas. Penelope didn't even wake up as Lee took her out of bed and buckled her into her car seat. She finally woke as the sun rose, and by then we were well into Alabama.
We might even have made it into Mississippi before our first stop, which was at a pretty remote truck stop where all the patrons turned and watched us pull into our parking space. Was it the Connecticut plate? The Toyota emblem? The simple unfamiliarity of us? Whatever it was, it made us very interesting to everyone there!
Overall, however, the road trip passed without incident. Our directions took us over a lot of non-Interstate highway, which was pretty cool. We got to see towns, and signs like this:
We listened to a bunch of episodes of This American Life. Penelope did very well in the car, and fussed only minimally. We did our best to stop plenty of times without lingering unnecessarily. We finally grabbed milkshakes at a Whataburger outside of Tulsa and allowed lots of time for Penelope to run around and stretch her legs and admire this giant fish tank with an antique Whataburger man display:
We made it to our hotel in Ponca City around 10 o'clock, amazing even ourselves at what great time we made!
We got plenty of rest that night and took our time getting going the next morning. Enjoyed a continental breakfast; did some Christmas shopping; had lunch at Chili's; met Lee's parents for milkshakes at Braum's. Penelope got re-acquainted with her Grandma and Grandpa Emerson.
While we were there, I got P dressed in her Christmas dress, and then she and I went to the single Catholic church in town for Christmas Eve Mass. We left Lee to continue to hang out with his parents; the family was scheduled to meet for dinner, so the timing worked out great.
The church was packed, and the ushers showed Penelope and me to one of the very last empty seats. However, Penelope was less than interested in staying seated there. I managed to keep her occupied, distracted, or at least quiet until about the responsorial psalm, when her noise level forced me to remove us to the narthex for the remainder of the Mass. We were in good company; several other parents with their well-dressed and fidgety toddlers stood around with us. Penelope still wasn't thrilled to be there, so after communion, we stepped out. I think most of the parents of the fidgety toddlers did the same.
I tried to get some nice pictures of Penelope outside the church. She used to be very responsive to the camera, but she has outgrown that and now largely ignores me when I point the lens at her and start singing, "Penelope! PeNELope! Sweetie! Hey, Penelope! HONEY!"
To make up for skipping out on the end of Mass, I played Christmas songs and sang them loudly as we drove to the restaurant to meet the family. Lee was still with his parents, picking up his grandpa, when we arrived, but his brothers were there with their wives, plus Penelope's cousins Rachel and Cortney. Penelope met them once before, when we were in Oklahoma in January or February for Lee's grandmother's funeral, and I doubt she remembers, but she took to them immediately, as if she saw them every day. She's normally a little goosey around strangers. Maybe she could just tell they were her family. Lee arrived with his mom and dad and grandpa before too long, and we had a nice dinner.
She's not picking her nose in that one. I'm not saying she doesn't pick her nose, or even that I haven't caught her picking her nose in (numerous) pictures; she's just not doing it in that picture.
Penelope was sure to close out the festivities with a nice show of floor-rolling and wailing, as is her current custom.
After dinner, we visited with Lee's grandpa at the assisted living facility for a bit, and then we left town for Enid.
Christmas morning, we went over to Lee's parents' house.
Penelope is getting pretty good at stairs--she even instinctively grabbed the rail!
There are lots of toys at Grandma's, and cousins Rachel and Cortney live right next door. Penelope enjoyed her cousins a lot, and she had more than enough things to play with and look at to keep her busy for the next millennium.
Grandma also has... more cats and dogs than I think I can even remember! Penelope was in hog heaven. She is a big fan of dogs and cats. And one of these cats was actually a fan of her, too! This little guy, named Victor, was very affectionate towards Penelope, and he liked to follow her around and play with her and let her rest her cheek on his fur.
When present-opening time came, Penelope needed a little assistance at first to open her gifts, but after that, she became a pro. She even learned to say, "Ooo! Ooo!" as she unwrapped.
There were lots of enticing goodies to nibble on. Gwen made some very excellent desserts, including a most memorable peppermint cheesecake and some chocolate cream cheese truffles. Nom.
Here are Gwen and David:
In all the commotion, I somehow failed to get a good picture of Eric and Rhonda, or of Rachel and Cortney. There was a dizzying amount of picture-taking going on, anyway. Maybe someone can send me some pictures!
Penelope got quite a haul: books and bath toys; two dolls who laugh and one who came with her own bath tub and the ability to urinate; clothes. Here, she savors her goodies:
She also discovered that she is a big fan of candy canes.
A few more from Christmas day:
The next day, Rachel and Cortney stayed with Penelope while I went with Lee's mom to the thrift store and Lee went with his dad to check out his dad's old Monroe. Later in the day, we met up with some friends for dinner and drinks while Penelope stayed with her grandparents. It was the first time we had been out in the evening together as adults since my company Christmas party last year!
After breakfast Saturday, it was time to hit the road, this time quite a bit later than on the trip up, with all of us feeling much more fatigued. And while we had good weather for most of the day, by evening, the rain was falling hard. Those charming non-Interstate highways became thoroughfares for deluged woodland creatures looking for high ground. Penelope became very, very ready to stop for the night, but it was a long time before there was any place to stop. We finally found relief at the Super 8 in Tallulah, Louisiana.
A truck stop pic:
We made it home before dark on our second day of travel, and Penelope got to open her presents here.
A book on her favorite topic:
She even shared her apple with Donovan! She was preoccupied with her candy cane.
Today we saw Blair and Jason and Nora, and Penelope said, "Ooo! Ooo!" again as she opened gifts from them. But she was also in a very, very crabby mood and let the entire Chinese restaurant know it for a protracted period of time. She has been pretty congested with a persistent cough, which has worsened slightly in the last few days. The cough wakes her up at night, so she slept badly last night and didn't nap for a long time today. I hope that improves soon!
So, yay! Merry Christmas!