Christmas in Wisconsin

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Iris may be a high-speed eater, but her gift unwrapping pace was record-breaking slow-- we started to think she was unwrapping as slowly as she was on purpose to drive her brother bonkers.

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

No Christmas is complete without a singing reindeer made out of garland.

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

She tossed her own Christmas books to the floor and asked Grandpa to read her my new Chickens in Your Backyard book.

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/29/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Playing with distorted faces effects...

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

From 12/30/2011 (by Eye-Fi)

Our trip to the Midwest has been a flurry of events and activity ever since we left Pittsburgh hours before the sun came up on Monday morning, starting with Mike feeling sick shortly into the drive and me getting pulled over shortly after relieving him of the driving. I only got a warning for the speeding, which I didn't even realize I was creeping up to while trying to feed a banana to Iris in the seat behind me to keep her from waking her sick dad. But the less-than-merry she-cop did send us on our way with a citation for improper child seat restraints and a burned out headlight, which we've been meaning to fix for the better part of a year (and shoot, at 8:30 on a sunny morning, I didn't even need to have the lights on). The girls had wiggled their arms up and over their harnesses, and Jack had his belt tucked behind him. We're sure as heck cracking down on them now.

Mike continued feeling better throughout the day, though I ended up driving for more than 9 hours of the 12 road hours of the trip. We pulled into Grandma and Grandpa's house around 4:30 and had a nice chunk of the day left for visiting before bedtime. The next morning, I awoke feeling nauseated and was sick with flu symptoms the rest of the morning. I guess here is as good a place as any to get sick, as I was able to get some rest for the next two days while the kids were well occupied.

Will and Ashley arrived late Wednesday night, and the kids were excited to see them in the morning and exchange gifts after breakfast. All the kids enjoyed their new puzzles, books and puppets- and Abigail her leotard and ballerina slippers, which she's been wearing every chance she's had since, including naps.

This afternoon, I showed Jack this post from the Wards, and he was inspired to make his own puppet theater in Grandma and Grandpa's basement to showcase their newly acquired performers. He made "tickets" for each of the adults and gathered us all together for the show, whose plot was just as much a mystery to the puppeteers as the audience. It was sweet though, complete with a superhero bunny and cereal character performances. And a little bathrobe-clad sweetie, who kept stealing away under the makeshift curtain.

It's unbelievable to me that we'll already be packing up to leave tomorrow (and leaving first thing the next morning). Granted, I was sleeping for a good portion of our time earlier on, and there's been a lot filling our days (and evenings after the kids go to bed playing Apples to Apples and Cranium), but these visits seem to be getting shorter and shorter. I'm sure we'll fit in another puppet show or two before we go.