Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Here's how our Christmas trip went:

Before we left we had Christmas for our little family.  It was lovely.  The morning started off with finding a dead mouse in our garage.  For about a week or so I had noticed what I thought were rodent droppings under Nate's car after he left in the morning.  So we got some mouse traps and baited them with peanut butter.  In one day, the peanut butter was gone on one trap.  The next day it was gone on the other trap.  Then the first trap was sprung and moved under Nate's car.  Then the second trap was sprung and moved under my car.  Finally, I put peanut butter on them again and sprayed them with bug spray as our garage is prone to crickets and I thought maybe that's what ate the peanut butter.  The next morning (our family Christmas) there was our best present, a dead mouse.

It was big.  With a long tail.  Gross.

Then we did Christmas.  Braelyn got some books, a stuffed dog with a squeaky thing in it, the little rings, and some stacking cups.  We added the books to our three gifts as we found a good deal at Barnes and Noble. Here's the best picture we got of her with all her gifts that morning.

Then we packed.  Braelyn's all ready to go!

We caught the bus to the airport and flew to Nebraska.  That flight was a little long, but Braelyn did well, sleeping on the take off and landing.  It was a full flight and a serviceman sat next to us, not sure if he was in the National Guard or what exactly.  He was nice though.

In Nebraska we went to church to show off Braelyn's Christmas dress...

Then we went to have dinner with Nate's aunt and uncle and his grandma.  Braelyn got to meet her Great-Grandma!

Looks like they made friends with each other.  Braelyn loved Nate's aunt and uncle's dog, a huge lab mix named Simon.  We then went to the Bartels' Christmas at my cousin's house, where she wouldn't let anyone hold her.  That became a theme throughout our Christmas travels.  I suppose it was all the change and the fact that she really WAS teething!  Who knew?!?  More on that later.

The next day we went to my grandpa's house to have a Christmas dinner with him and my brother and his girlfriend Kiley, who is wonderful.  Braelyn warmed up to Great-Grandpa a bit, letting him hold her for a while.  She had a great time playing ball with Uncle Christian, she thought it was hilarious.  We also got a three-generation picture...

The next day we flew to Nashville, via Chicago and St. Louis.  We weren't supposed to have to switch planes, but in Chicago we did, because we think someone got sick all over the bathroom and they had to sanitize things.  The flight to Chicago was fine, a nice young man sat in our row and Braelyn kept him entertained.  The flight from Chicago to St. Louis was the best...we got an empty seat in our row, but Braelyn slept the whole time, so that was less exciting than it should have been.  From St. Louis to Nashville a very nice Southwest captain sat in our row.  Braelyn was a little tired of flying by then, but here's a great picture of her before we took off in St. Louis:

Overall she's a good little traveler.

We made it to Nashville and Nate's parents' house.  On the drive to their house I discovered that her bottom tooth had erupted from the gums, a Christmas miracle!  We had Christmas with them and I'm sure she was really overwhelmed at that point, but she warmed up to them after a day or so.  Nate and his dad and brother went to the Music City Bowl

And the whole family (except me...Braelyn was sleeping and very crabby) went to the Opreyland hotel to see the lights there, which are apparently amazing.  We didn't really get any pictures with Braelyn, but here's one from New Year's Eve

I have a Nebraska snuggie too but I was asleep at this point, I believe.

Then we came home.  We had a delay in the Nashville airport because the plane was broken.  Then the new plane came from Florida and they had to take the bathroom door off midflight because someone got locked in it (it was a brand new plane), so they had to fix that before we could leave. The flight from Nashville to Las Vegas was really long.  We were very blessed as the flight was very full but no one sat next to us, so we had lots of room, which was good because she barely slept.

Now I want to do this.

Maybe later.

A good time was had by all, but I don't think we'll try this particular trip set-up again in a very long time.