Christmas vacation part one

Caleb's recovery from RSV was slow and difficult. I spent the first few days of his illness taking him to the doctor and driving him around town to help him sleep in his car seat. One day, I put the DVD player in the car for Luke, and we went for a ride. Thank goodness for Luke's easy-going personality. Thank goodness also for Don taking the boys to and from school, so that I didn't have to take Caleb into any other germ infested sites. The steroid treatment that they gave him had a side effect listed as making him more vulnerable to getting sick. That was the last thing we needed!
We were in survival mode. House work was on the back burner. One day, I felt so frustrated, that I headed back to our bathroom during one of Caleb's naps to clean. It was a small part of the house. But at least it was something clean!
As the dust cleared from our crazy week, I realized that I needed to make preparations for our holidays down South. The boys' end-of-the-year activities were well under way, and although I was sad that I couldn't attend, I was more concerned about helping Caleb get totally well before our trip.
So the first leg of our journey started on Friday morning, December 18th. I had sent notes to the boys' teachers letting them know that we were leaving early. We were headed to Atlanta for the first night: to Sarah and Chris's house. Caleb did GREAT!!! The first 25 minutes or so -- getting out of Lexington -- were the most painful. He cried a lot. But he finally fell asleep. When he woke up, I fed him, we all ate lunch, and then he watched some of his Baby Einstein DVD. Don had invested in a sort of platform sort of thing from Best Buy that fit in between our two head rests. The older two boys watched movies on the DVD player mounted there. It fit just above Caleb's rear facing car seat. We had also invested in a smaller single screen DVD player just for Caleb. I would place it at his feet in his car seat. That worked out well, too.
We had snow in Tennessee, and some traffic to deal with off and on. But the most painful traffic was the last hour or so in Atlanta... Trying to get off at Sarah and Chris' exit was excruciating: we traveled a few miles in almost 30 minutes or something crazy like that. The boys were amazing--even Caleb!!! He would start to fuss, and I would just reach back and rub his head. He would keep watching his Baby Einstein DVD, and settle down. Unreal. Thank you, Lord!
When we arrived, Sarah and Chris were gone to a Christmas party. But Sarah had the house looking amazing, Christmasy, and there was even music playing in the background. A wonderful respite for weary travelers. :)
Jon David and Luke LOVED sleeping together on the futon. It reminded me of all of the times that Sarah and I used to sleep together on trips with our family growing up. They were giddy with excitement.
The next day, we had breakfast and just hung out. It was great. It was the Nicholsons' first time to see Caleb.
And it's pretty hard to post this picture without commenting on Sarah's photogenicness--although that's not a word.
Jon David had received a joke book from his teacher as a Christmas gift. GREAT idea!! He was on a roll reading Chris joke after joke. Jon David would read a joke, and give Chris the punch line, and Chris would laugh out loud every time! It was so sweet. And it really sounded like he was cracking up!


Hats off Chris. And love the hair!

Sweet Sarah made cookies with Jon David and Luke. Below is the evidence of Jon David's over exuberance about the sprinkles...



Oh, and she played a cool science game with them too. It was like a children's science trivia or something. They enjoyed it and did surprisingly well. Leave it to Sarah to have a science game in the house!

We had such a great time, Sarah! I can't believe I didn't take any pics of Emory that day! The boys had a great time playing with her. Thanks for being such a great sister and hostess!!!