Our Trip

Saturday (Christmas Eve Eve) we drove to Minnesota and were able to watch the Vikings/Packers game on TV. I took my brother to Dairy Queen because they apparently don't have them in Washington DC and he loves Cookie Dough Blizzards. A Vikings win with DQ? Hello perfect night! 

Sunday was Christmas Eve! In my family Christmas Eve has always been our big celebration day! And we open all the family presents. My grandpa and uncle joined us and it was a lovely meal!

Husband knowing the true way to my heart introduced me to my new best friend. I was so happy I took a selfie and texted it to my bestie. 

Christmas Day arrived and Santa came! It was a super low key day and was spent enjoying new things and each other. 

Tuesday was much the same. We always play games at night when we are at my parent's house and we played Disney Monopoly. I have never won Monopoly before but I totally did. I first bankrupted Husband. Then one of my brothers. Then my dad. Then my other brother quit. Because I was just too good. All those properties and castles are mine. 

On Wednesday we went as our little family to The Crayola Experience at the Mall of America. C is so into art that we thought he would love it. He was the exact right age for all of the things. M enjoyed it too but if she was just a little young for some of it. We loved the play area.

My favorite activity was making the melted crayon spin art! C smiled for me but he preferred Wrap It Up! where you can design a crayon wrapper and put it on a crayon to take home. Everyone gets a token with their admission to do it once. We bought extra tokens to do this many more times because he loved it so much! (Translates to 50 cents a crayon.) 

You can draw on a computer and then your art is projected on the wall. Here is C with his walrus art. 

And M with her scribbly rocket.

Of course just the coloring station was fun for the group. 

M and I liked the glow marker board. It was really fun. And the closest thing to graffiti I've ever done.

There were so many other fun things to do. We spent a full 4 hours there and we didn't do everything. The annual pass wasn't too expensive and we really considered it since we visit my parents enough that even going twice would pay for itself. 

Thursday was the "warm" day of the trip since it got up to about 12 degrees. And so the kids got to go sledding. Which C was really anticipating. I am so happy they were able to go out to the backyard and do that. 

 

Friday we went to an Escape room. It has kind of become our thing and it was really fun! We escaped and saved Christmas but just only barely! Like with a minute left. C came with us for the first time and he wasn't super helpful but he did really like it. 

Saturday our whole big group went to see Ferdinand. C loves that book so so much and when we went to see Despicable Me in August we saw one of those cardboard ads in the lobby and he got so excited. It was so nice to go as a big group and we all actually enjoyed it a lot. Reclining seats are the best! 

Sunday we drove three hours to my FIL's house. We had a little Christmas lunch, opened some more presents and played with his Christmas gift for himself the bubble hockey table. 

Then we drove another three hours and we made our way home. It was the first leg of our trip where we the kids got to play their Kindles. They were troopers and it was a nice end to our more than a week away. Then M fell asleep anyway. We were so ready to be home!

And while were gone Santa came to our house too. 

We were so excited to be home with a few more things. The greatest gift of all was just being home though. I  was so glad I left our house spotless even if everyone thought I was crazy vacuuming the steps while we were loading the car last weekend.

It was the perfect blend of everything. Down time and fun activities. But still, I am happy to be home!!