Merry Christmas

Last Friday, we filled a propane tank on the trailer, had some Dunkin’ Donuts for breakfast and got the trailer settled to live without us while we fly west for the Christmas holiday. With our neighbors watching the trailer, we headed to Atlanta in the car. We stayed in a Holiday Inn near the airport. Our overnight rate included free parking for the car for up to two weeks.

At 5:30 am Saturday morning, we were in the hotel lobby grabbing a couple snack bars for breakfast and waiting for the free airport shuttle. We rode to the airport, dropped off our pre-checked bags at the bag drop (thanks, Alaska Airlines!) and lucked out to be sent through the shorter Pre-Check security line. We arrived at our gate in plenty of time.

We arrived at the Seattle airport around 9:30 am local time. Cole’s mother came over and picked us up and took us to Elizabeth and Cole’s house. Since it was Christmas Eve, they were entertaining Cole’s sister and brother and his family. We joined in and grabbed some brunch to eat and watched them exchange gifts. On Saturday evening, we headed to Cole’s parents’ house for Christmas Eve dinner with the family.

Violet and Malcolm found a quiet room to do some drawing with her new art set.

The Wii golf tournament in full swing (pun intended)

We headed back to the house Saturday night and made sure Santa’s cookies and milk were set up and ready on the kitchen table. On Sunday morning, we got up (Santa had been by, evidenced by the empty cookie plate and additional gifts on the table) and opened presents.

Elizabeth and the girls assembling the art easel that Santa left for Violet.

Santa left quite a few gifts.

After cleaning up the wrapping paper, the girls spent the rest of the morning playing with toys while we cleaned up wrapping paper and tidied up the living room. On Christmas afternoon, we headed back over to Cole’s parents’ house for Christmas dinner and gift exchange with the family.

On Monday, we all just chilled at the house. We all took turns playing with toys and generally relaxing. We ran out and took care of a couple shopping runs during the day. The stores were surprisingly not very busy (except for Costco).