Surprise Christmas Gift

     Back in September Erin and I decided we would all go to North Carolina to spend Christmas with my mom and John. Once the decision was made we decided that it would be an excellent Christmas gift to surprise her. For three months we planned and planned our trip out there. On Christmas Eve at 6:00am we boarded our plane headed for Knoxville, TN. As we flew east the kids slept and Tim and I watched a beautiful sunrise at 30,000 feet. We switched planes in Dallas and our excitement started building. We were all hungry, tired, excited, and anxious about pulling off the surprise without letting the cat out of the bag. In Knoxville we picked up our rental car and headed further east toward Clyde. The weather was perfect. The sun was out and it was warm. As the distance between our car and mom's house got shorter and shorter the excitement in the car was so thick you could smell it...or maybe that was Erin. We stopped at the bottom of Breakwood (moms street) to change diapers and put the kids in their little Christmas outfits. We were like tornadoes whipping off clothes, putting on diapers, throwing clothes back on. We kept getting texts from Jackie telling us to hurry, that mom was back in her bedroom and John was having a hard time keeping her there. It was important that she stay in the bedroom because she could hear and see us pull up from any other room in the house. Then we quickly texted Jackie to let her know we were coming up the hill to the house. Two minutes later we were at the house. We were all shaking with excitement as we got out of the car and sprinted to the front door. We rang the doorbell...

     Once the initial excitement wore off we got our things unpacked and settled in for the next few days. On Christmas morning we woke up and it started to snow. Half way through the day it looked very snowy outside. We opened presents and then headed over to Jackie and Aaron's new house to eat Christmas dinner with Aaron's family. I am please to report that they are a very nice bunch of people and we had a very good afternoon with them.

     Since we were snowed in we played the Wii. Jackie got Just Dance 2 for Christmas so we all took turns playing that. Mom was a natural.

The fun had to end though so on the morning of the 28th we loaded back in the car and started our journey back. In the airport as tensions were running high due to our 60 carry ons, 2 little monsters driving us crazy, hunger, and exhaustion. Sophia broke the tension when she hid behind a pillar and screamed, "I am SO sick of my flamily! I am sick SICK SICK!! We all laughed until we cried. We were all feeling this way so for her to blurt it out was really funny. Despite the return trip we all had a wonderful time and on the way home discussed surprising mom for New Years.....