Christmas in Oregon

We left for Oregon a few days before Christmas and stopped for a night with David and Kira's family. Daniel was doing an inventory account in Bakersfield a couple of days before Christmas, so we had to wait until he was finished with that before we continued on our trip. We love staying with David and Kira, though, and Brooke and Aubrey were thick as thieves. She loved being with her cousins. And I love Dave and Kira; they're my kind of people. We agree on almost everything.

Daniel finished his work thing around 4 in the afternoon, and we decided to do the rest of the trip in one shot. It was going to be a long day; but, actually, the girls handled it very well, and eventually crashed later on in the evening. We didn't get to Medford until almost 1 in the morning. And everyone was still up, waiting for us to come.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were wonderful! We hung out as a family; ate some good food -- some delish homemade tamales (mom even made this OH SO GOOD vegan one for me, sweet potato with black beans and corn); read a Christmas story before a crackling fire; watched A Christmas Carol; Daniel and I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, Christmas Eve night, helping Mom and Dad wrap presents. Brooke was so excited about Santa coming, she could barely contain herself. And after having a little spiritual thought, we went in to see what Santa had brought everyone. Brooke's big present was a little Strider Bike, which she was really excited about (though she spent most of that morning coloring with her new crayons), and Camille's big present was a nice set of wooden blocks, which Santa and an Elf had built into a magnificent castle. Daniel and I didn't buy any presents for each other and instead spent our money on a nice new camera, which I have yet to learn how to use. :)

Once Diane and Houston's family (they had spent the morning with his family) and Julie and Mark's family (they had done Christmas morning at their home) arrived, we proceeded to open presents under the tree, and we all had a wonderful time. Brooke was so excited about Makai and her other cousins being there, and I think Camille just liked a new place to explore and so many people holding her and loving her and giving her all kinds of attention.

We stayed in Medford another 9 days after Christmas and did so many fun things with the family. Julie and Mark stayed for almost as long as we did, and the house was crazy with people. But so good. The one really bad part of it was that someone brought the stomach flu home with them and it just traveled through the family. We watched one person at a time, every single day, drop. About half of us were affected, and the other half were watching, agonizing over when their turn would come. We were fortunately in the half that was not affected; but it was seriously agonizing, just wondering if we would get sick.

We spent the time: playing LOTS of games; watching movies; going to see the new Star Wars movie (some of us); going bowling as a family; having a Murder Mystery dinner (just for the adults; Christmas themed, Daniel and I were reindeers, and I ended up being one of 2 murderers); I visited with some old friends from high school, which was just the tiniest bit weird; Daniel and I went on a fun date.

The girls just loved being around their cousins and surrounded by people, playing and exploring, although I do think that Camille may have been a tiny bit overwhelmed. She was fussier than usual, though that could also have been because she was only taking one nap. Stinker.

We had a marvelous time with everyone, and we were sad to have to come home. It was fun, though, coming home, in that we stopped halfway to see Michael and Michelle's family and stay with them for the night. We love that we have people along the way that we can visit and stay with. It really helps to be able to break the drive up for the girls. And then, it feels like the trip takes almost no time, because we only drive 5-6 hours a day!