Travel, news, Christmas, more travel

Thirty hours on the road is a bit taxing but that is what it took to get Mama, Victoria, the pups, the Christmas presents, et. al. to Florida and back again. The way down was a long trip and we never seem to make it without excessive stops. This time the main excuse was the six puppies we had with us but an hour for lunch at Chick-fil-A didn’t help.

We learned early in the trip that when the pups started to cry it was time to stop and let them relieve themselves. Fortunately, we are not all that difficult to train. So, about every two hours we had to find a place for them to get on a patch of grass and go potty. They had us so well trained that there was not a single time they used the potty in the kennel. Pretty good for old fogies like us.

Nate had a place set up for the pups and they were all too happy to get out of the kennel to play. The grandkids even spared a moment to welcome Grammy and me while they played with the puppies. That only lasted about half an hour and the puppies were ready to crawl back into the kennel for the night. They were quiet every night from about 9 pm until about 5:30 a.m. each morning. We had some very early mornings while we were with Cori, Nate and the kids.

As we congregated together just after we arrived Blake brought a little onesie to Grammy that said “Baby’s First Christmas” on it. We did not know the significance until Blake explained that it meant that mommy had a baby in her tummy. Yes, number four is on the way. Mama and I will gain two grandchildren next year. And Mama will get to travel – Lord willing – to each of those births.

Christmas with the grandkids was fun. Mykenzie got a piano and the boys got a basketball hoop. They also found out that they got to keep one of the puppies. It was a good morning. Brittany and Andrew were there also so we had a pretty good crew to celebrate with.

The next day Nate took the Christmas tree down and cut all the branches off of it. We used it to start a fire that night and burned the branches and all the wrapping paper –as well as several boxes. It was a nice evening. The kids always like a good fire and it was pleasantly cool outside.

We left Florida after breakfast with Grant. Yesterday was his sixth birthday. Sunday night Mike and Alana’s three boys spent the night both for Grant’s birthday and for Alana to go to the hospital to have their fourth child – their first daughter. It was quite a night with all those busy boys in the house.

The trip home was relatively uneventful. We were in traffic for over an hour but other than that we had pretty clear roads for the entire eight hundred miles. We ended up getting home about 10 pm and were all in bed by 11pm.

Not bad for a day’s work.