13 Things About Our Christmas Road Trip (#19)

Every year around Christmas time, we loop the state of Kansas, stopping off to visit everyone’s families. On Wednesday, we drove down to my parents’ house, which is about a 3 ½ hour drive. With children, bathroom breaks and stops for lunch, it is well over a four-hour drive. Here are a few things about our trip so far:

1. Rain – It was raining buckets. It can be perfectly clear for 30 days out of the month, but it either rains or snows the one day we travel. Every freaking year.

2. Sleeping hand – My daughter was very fussy on the trip down. The only thing that calmed her was if I reached back and patted her rhythmically. If I stopped, she began screaming. By the time we got to our destination, I could no longer feel my left arm.

3. Email addiction – Okay, I may officially be an email addict. I checked my email twice on my phone on the way down.

4. DVD addiction – My son is a DVD addict. He came equipped with a portable DVD player, six DVDs and earbuds. And he’s only four. I know this is really my fault, but it makes the trip much smoother.

5. Evil McDonalds – A few months ago, I related how the McDonald’s on the turnpike refused to sell me a four-piece chicken mcnuggets for Georgia. They said they did not have a four-piece. Grrrrr. . . Today, we bought her a Happy Meal. Guess how many chicken mcnuggets came with it? FOUR! The bastards.

6. Lack of sleep – I always have the delusional hope that Georgia will sleep in the car. Well, she did finally fall asleep. Ten minutes before we reached our exit.

7. Kakuro – I love to play Kakuro, and car trips are the only time I have time to do it. I was patting Georgia with one hand, and filling in numbers with the other. I’m great at multi-tasking.

8. XM Radio – Eric loves his XM Radio. I get to listen to it when we go on car trips. I love the Satellite Sisters! I might have to get my own XM Player just so I can hear them on a regular basis.

9. Cell phone ringtones – I have programmed my cell phone so that each person in my phone book has their own ring. I have tried to fit each ring to the person’s personality. When people call me in the car, this always creates a lot of discussion with Eric. Sometimes amusement, and sometimes he just doesn’t get the correlation between the ringtone and the person. It's always fun when he attempts to figure out how my mind works.

10. Cows – I always think you can predict the weather by looking at what the cows are doing. (Travelling through Kansas, you pass a lot of cows.) Eric disagrees with me. I think we argue about this on every single road trip.

11. Potty – Every time we come near a bathroom, I ask Eli 10 times if he needs to go. He always says, “NO!” And then the second we pass the rest stop and the sign that says, “Next exit, 33 miles,” I hear, “Mommy! I need to go to the bathroom!” It never fails.

12. Moose Forest – You can’t even imagine the number of deer crossing signs on the highway. (aka Moose signs) This sparks a lot of animated discussion from Eli about all the “Moose Forests” we’re passing.

13. Luggage – At Christmas, it’s always a fun challenge to see how much we stuff in our car. The real challenge doesn’t come until we drive home with all the presents. We can usually barely get the trunk shut. Maybe on the way home, we'll strap one of the children to the roof.

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