Update

We've been pretty busy over the past 6 weeks, so I'll give a brief recap to catch you up to speed.

The week of Thanksgiving we drove to Indiana to visit my family. We hadn't been up there since last Thanksgiving (though we had seen my family over the summer when they came down here.) It's a 14 hour drive to get there and we always have a debate over whether to try and do it in 1 day or break it up into 2, but we almost always end up doing it in 1 to get it over with. Last year we did the whole "let's just sleep and leave whenever we get up" thing which put us arriving at my parents around 11:30pm. That wasn't great, so this year we left our house at 4am. There are definite pros and cons to either option. The con to leaving so early in the morning is kids. Cooper is a terrible sleeper lately

. So of course he woke up when we carried him from his crib to the car (even though we did everything possible to avoid that, kept the lights low, stayed quiet, didn't stop to change his clothes or diaper. Just picked him up and carried him straight out there.) He then proceeded to STAY AWAKE until sometime after LUNCH! While he really didn't behave badly, it's stressful when your 17 month old is awake for that amount of time. You always assume he's on the verge of a tantrum of catastrophic proportions so you feel a bit on edge.

Ultimately he only slept for about 1 hour out of 14 on the road. Fun times. The rest of the time he alternated between whining, playing (limited amounts of this), watching movies and eating.

Garrett of course did great. 5 is a great age for traveling. They get what you're doing and are excited to see the people you're going to visit and they're just happy to have unlimited amounts of time spent watching movies. And it's even better when

the movie watching takes place on the laptop since little brother is watching "baby" movies on the portable DVD player.

Our visit was lots of fun. We took my parents and the 5 grandkids to have professional pictures taken of all of them. We celebrated Thanksgiving, Christmas, and my birthday. Keith and I got to go see 2 different movies. Grown-up, non-animated movies. And we suffered through Cooper's bad sleeping habits. He wakes up at the drop of a pin, so imagine how well he slept in a pack n play (that he's on the verge of outgrowing) at the foot of the bed where his parents slept. The first few nights were a nightmare. Then Keith and I took turns sleeping with Garrett on the air mattress in the family room while the other had to suffer through a bad night with the monster. Most people would prefer an actual bed to an air mattress, but not when the bed comes along with a screaming roommate.

Since our trip, I feel like we've been in a whirlwind of Christmas. Christmas parties, Christmas presents, Christmas decorations, etc. Keith's work has a party, my work has a party, the boys' school has a party, our SS class has a party (which we missed because it was the weekend before my birthday which was the only chance we had to celebrate it.)

I actually think I'm done with my Christmas shopping. I don't want to say that too loud for fear my mind will start conjuring up more people to add to the list. Yesterday on our weekly Walmart trip, I finished out the last of our list, mostly people at the boys' school along with our angel tree gifts. Now I get to wrap them all. I used to love wrapping presents, but now it's just one more thing to add into mix.

Before I end this to get back to my mile long to-do list, I had to quickly share about our experience at Keith's work Christmas party. In the past, these parties have usually been held at the Dallas Arboretum or the Dallas Aquarium. They always have a luncheon rather than a formal dinner and we eat lunch, play a few random games for door prizes and then spend the rest of the time walking around the venue. This year they changed things up and booked the party at a movie theater. At first I was very skeptical. While I'm always on board with going to the movies without my children, that seemed like such an odd thing to do for a Christmas party. And I guess it's still a little different, but it really ended up being a lot of fun.

The theater where they held the party was Gold Class Cinema in Allen (just in case any of the locals are curious.) When we walked in, they had this huge lou

nge area. Very different from the typical theater. There are couches and chairs and tables all over the place. On one end of the lounge is the "concession stand" which really was more of a bar than anything else. Keith and his coworkers had voted on what movie they wanted to see, so there were 2 screens open with 2 different movie options. Keith and I had already seen "The Next 3 Days" on Thanksgiving, so we chose "Morning Glory". When you walk into the theater itself, all you see are a bunch of huge recliners. There are half the number of seats in this theater as the typical one because of the size of these recliners. When you sit down, there is a fluffy blanket rolled up at your seat and the recliner lays almost flat at the push of a button. One of the armrests opens up to store your jacket and/or purse and in between 2 seats is a small table with a call button.

At each table was a menu with 6 or 7 lunch options on it. We circled what we wanted for lunch and the menus were collected. Then our drink orders were taken and we munched on the (fancy) bowl of popcorn sitting at our table while we waiting on the food. Drinks were served (in real glasses) and about 20 minutes into the movie, our food was delivered. Anytime we needed a refill, we just pushed the call button and someone would come to your seat quietly and refill your glass. With about 30 minutes left in the movie, a plate of cookies and brownies were brought to each table for dessert. It was so fun and a really neat experience! If you happen to live close to one of these theaters you should check them out. I looked up their website and they are very few and far between (only 2 in Texas!) And they definitely aren't cheap. $25 just for the ticket. But it really is an experience, not just a movie. I certainly wouldn't go there on a regular basis, but for a special occasion it would be fun, especia

lly if you're a big fan of the movies like we are.

I always have millions of blog posts running around in my head but haven't been taking the time to sit down and write them. But hopefully I'll have time to blog about getting a year older and maybe about the fun that is involved when you're the only girl in a house of boys. But until then, Merry Christmas blog friends!