Wow- the past 6 weeks has been so crazy! We decided to mix things up a bit this year, hop into the car and drive to Utah for Christmas. My brother Riche lives there and our sister Lisa joined the party all the way from Michigan. We also spent some time with my nephew Mike, his wife Shalyn and their adorable baby, Naomi.
Tips for a successful Road Trip:
Do NOT deliver Christmas cookies the night before. It always takes longer than you think. You will come home tired, crabby and sick from the cookies you decided to eat instead of delivering.
DO remember to drop off your hermit crab, otherwise you will be taking a 20 minute detour on your way out the next morning and that's no way to start a road trip. The bonus? We gifted our crab to the sitters and won't be worrying about pet sitting in the future! (Until we get talked into buying a snake, which, gulp, might happen)
DO make special folders for each of the kids with their picture on the front and a US map inside for recording license plates and a road trip scavenger hunt and paper and pencils. The kids excitement over this will only last for about 13 mintues but during that time you are rock star mom.
DO decide while traveling to wildly alter your travel route to avoid any and all weather. This keeps things interesting. If you can add in a 4 hour detour to a National Park, DO IT!
DO start out with a few healthy food items including celery and raw almonds. Once you pound through these you feel fine eating an entire bag of Swedish Fish.
DON'T forget to check your car battery before leaving on this trip. A dead battery can be fun since you might get to watch a beautiful sunset in Cortez, CO (and reminincse about your bff college roommate for a bit- yo NAOM!) but it will set you back at least an hour. Would have been longer if Curt didn't insist on doing it himself. Love that handy guy!
Utah was a lot of fun! Christmas Eve was one of my favorites ever. We had an amazing dinner (courtesy of Riche, Steph and Lisa). We followed my mom's tradition of roast beef, yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes/gravy and salad. Everything was fantastic. We also enjoyed watching Luke II and having some music (Greensleaves on the guitar by Curtis, Silent Night Duet by Sam and Josh and a really beautiful Swedish quartet by Paul, Lisa, Sam and Josh).
Christmas Day was filled with more Tripp Family Traditions. Oranges, Percy Faith's "We Need a Little Christmas," sugar ceral and plenty of chocolate.
The rest of the visit is a blur of excellent food, good conversation, dancing and listening to music, some sledding & snowmobiling, and an awesome Girl's Day Out. And of course for kids, unlimited video games. No wonder Daniel cried the morning we left. They were all sad to go.
The drive home was more of the same. We really enjoyed listening to a couple of A to Z mysteries on tape and heard most of the first book in "The Mysterious Benedict Society." Jonah has read it several times but it was new to the rest of us and we loved it. Unfortunately we ran out of time and still have not finished it. Guess we need another road trip.
