Starting the new year off...

This year we decided to travel over the Christmas break.  Now that the kids are in school, it's more difficult to get away so rather than Merpy Thanksmas we thought we would try just Merry Christmas.  We left on Christmas Eve after a morning of having our own Christmas celebration complete with Christmas surprise.  Each year we have planned a Christmas surprise for the boys - many involving late nights and lots of planning.  My parents will no longer visit us at Christmas after we had them up until 3am putting together bunk beds a few years ago.  This was a little more low key - a scavenger hunt where they each found a package containing cat supplies.  We're getting two cats - but not until we return from our trip.  The boys had a great morning and we managed to finish our packing and get out the door on time.

We flew to Chicago and spent the first half of the break there and then took the train to St. Louis and finished our trip with family there.  There were some great moments but Mr. 3 does not make staying in someone else's house easy and by New Year's Day we were ready to be back in our our house.  We said goodbye to everyone and jumped on the train back to Chicago.  We discovered train travel with our crew is great - if you subtract the craziness and stress of getting everyone and all our stuff on the train and finding seats together.  Once accomplished, the kids read books, play on their tablets, do puzzles (Mr. 5 is a puzzle guru), draw, and take lots of walk (Mr. 3's favorite part).  We had lots of snacks and even a picnic dinner to keep us well fed.  So far, so good.  

We arrived in Chicago at 8:30pm and planned to stay in a hotel right by Midway to make our early morning flight easier.  Step one, walk 4 blocks to the Metra and take the train out to Midway.  Unfortunately it was freezing and we had 4 tired kids and lots of luggage, but we rallied and everyone did great.  There was a bit of a shock when we realized there were 2 stories of stairs to climb outside to get to the train but we're brave and made it to the top.  When we arrived at Midway, it was a very long walk to the shuttle spot for our shuttle to the hotel.  So we missed the original shuttle they had sent for us.  And had a to wait in the cold for the next.  We handed out snacks and everyone cheerfully waited.  We got to the hotel and up to our room later than we would have liked but we were there and knew it was a short shuttle ride back early in the morning.

Unfortunately Mr. 3 was way too tired to go to bed.  While trying to get him to bed, all of our other kids fell asleep in our bed and so we decided he would just sleep with us.  Big mistake.  He spent the night waking up every hour or so and terrorizing one parent or the other.  This was coupled by a heating system that seemed to either continuously be on or off.  Our 4:30am alarm came quickly and everyone was super helpful in getting us back to the airport on time.  We grabbed a quick breakfast for the plane and loaded up.  All was fine until landing when we realized that Mr. 3 was not smelling so good.  We'll change him as soon as we get off we told ourselves.  As we were walking up the jetway, with David and Mr. 3 in the lead, the older boys and I noticed something yucky on the path.  One of them commented that it looked like poop.  I made sure we gave it a wide berth but it never occurred to me that it might be from us until I got Mr. 3 into the bathroom.  Yikes!  Once clear and dry, there was no way he could wear those pants.  And that's how we ended up walking through Logan with our 3 year old with no pants.  We picked up our luggage, fortified the boys with donut holes, put some pants on Mr. 3, and decided we would take the train home rather than a taxi.  An hour, one bus, one train, and one long cold walk later, we arrived home with much celebration.  Maybe next year we'll go back to Merpy Thanksmas.