Christmas Adventures!

And, we're back! We arrived back home after our nice, long, holiday ramblings through the tri-state area of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. Every year since we've been married, Aaron and I have always made it to both sides of the family for the holidays. We always spend Christmas Day with whichever side didn't see us for Thanksgiving and then we manage to make it over either a weekend before or after Christmas proper to see whoever we didn't see on Christmas Day. This way we still have a "Christmas" with everyone and can do our gift exchange and visiting. This year, we were blessed to have Aaron's extra week of paternity leave, which he saved up for just this occasion...so we were able to take a nice vacation and spend some much needed time with our families.

Here's how it went: We left on Friday, December 19th to head over to Enid, OK to spend the weekend with my family. We had our "Christmas" on Saturday with a wonderful meal of ham (which I did an awesome job of heating : )) and my mother's famous fruit glaze. Seriously, between my mom's ham glaze and Aaron's family's turkey hash, I don't know how I managed to not gain 20 pounds! I'll get back to the turkey hash later, because for us, the food we eat is a really important part of any trip. (This is sad, but we have actually planned trips around which of our favorite restaurants we could hit on the way. i.e. Bison Witches, the Mont, Dragon Palace, Furr's (that's Aaron's FYI) and we always anticipate the holiday staples that will be awaiting us at various family member's homes i.e. Grandma Ybarbo's pumpkin empanandas, Aunt Linda's pinwheels, enchiladas, tea, dips...okay...Aunt Linda's EVERYTHING is good, the tamales that we have every Christmas Eve at Grandma Davis' and her dressing (which becomes part of the mind blowing turkey hash) and Joyce's baby bicuits (are they better because they're bite sized? I don't know, but I know I ate a lot of them!), Kathy Lee's chocolate chip cookies, and since the whole Lee family has all become "foodies" we always get a gourmet meal out of them, Aaron's mom's spaghetti, tacos and fajitas, and again I mention my mom's ham glaze because it really deserves that much credit! Okay, I think I'm finished with my homage to all the food!

Getting back to the actual trip...we had a really nice time with my family over the weekend. We came home Sunday evening, so that Aaron could work Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday evening we traveled to Durant, OK to spend the night (needed to break up the 11 hour trip for the twins' sake) and then on to Goliad, TX on Christmas Eve. We didn't quite know how Alec and Emma would fare on the trip, now that they are moving and shaking, and figured they'd get pretty tired of those car seats! I have to say that they did very well, and we are so proud of them! Alec only started to fuss the last half hour of the trip to Goliad, which was totally understandable. We were in TX from Christmas Eve until January 4th. We were able to spend a lot of quality time with Aaron's parents, grandparents, aunts, uncle, and many cousins and friends. It was wonderful. The only damper was that we missed seeing his brother Aric and his girlfriend, Bobi Jo and their three-month old baby, Cira. They were unable to make the trip from CO. Also, Aaron's grandpa Lee was hospitalized while we were there, but he is doing okay. We'd appreciate your prayers for him.

With all of this traveling and being away from home, the babies did surprisingly well. They were very flexible and remained pretty content, most of the time. There were plenty of arms and laps for them to cuddle and play in, and they didn't have to fuss much before someone would come and rescue them. The only thing that was really disturbed was their sleep. Now, before we left for the holidays, they were in a good habit of sleeping through the night, which Aaron and I had encouraged them into through sleep training (cry it out method). Now, I realize that a lot of people disagree with this method, but maybe those people never had twins. I will refrain from judging your parenting style, if you will grant me the same courtesy. For us to constantly cater to every whimper and cry from the crib (one baby, then the other, then both) off and on throughout the night, results in drained parents and drained babies, neither of which have gotten sufficient rest. A little discomfort in the short term, resulted in a lot of good rest for all of us, after one night of allowing them to wail a while, after which they finally fell asleep. The very next night, I heard not a peep out of either of them until a suitable morning hour for breakfast. And they were smiling and happy...no trauma, no despair!

Well, we couldn't exactly let them fuss it out while away on vacation. Out of courtesy to the other people sleeping in the house, we ended up doing a lot of middle of the night feedings, rockings and bed sharing just so that we could all have peace and quiet. This left me wondering how they would do once we got back home. Well, it was rough at first. We had our bedtime routine, and put them down in their cribs. Emma wailed!...but finally fell asleep. Then Alec woke up at 11pm and wailed! We comforted him some off and on and then let him cry a little while...but finally fell asleep for good. And then the good Lord gave us all a good night's sleep. I didn't wake up until Aaron's alarm went off, and I still didn't hear any stirring on the monitor! Emma woke up at 7:15 ready to be nursed, and then Alec at 7:30. Perfect! Anyway, we're all happy today for some uninterrupted sleep. Again, I know that this type of method is not for everyone, and I certainly understand those who cannot bear the thought of letting their child cry. I hate it! But, I also believe that if we can work toward a good night's rest for all of us...we'll be better parents, and they'll be happier, healthier kids.

Now I'm going to work on posting pictures. I'll do them in batches and let you know where we were and what was going on when they were taken. I'm sure you'll all enjoy those posts better than this long-winded one! For some stupid reason, we didn't get any still shots when we were with my folks...just some video. So, the pictures start on Christmas Day in Goliad.