Payton's first Christmas happened to fall on our year to be in Illinois over the holiday, a huge bummer for Grandma and Grandpa, NOT! We had a great trip. We flew out Christmas Eve around 10am. My mom so kindly gave us a ride (this is such a HUGE help now travelling with kid!). The airport was pretty crazy, but we made it to our gate in time for boarding (just barely) no thanks to DIA security and the completely invasive body search I received because the sealed baby food we were carrying on for Payton's lunch on the plane was "contaminated". I had heard all the commotion around the searches and honestly thought people were being dramatic and whining. I owe each and every one of them a huge apology. I had a strange woman's hands on every inch of my body including in my pants, SERIOUSLY!?!? Anyway, we made it to Chicago almost on time with all of our bags and to Kole's parents house (1 1/2 hour drive) pretty smoothly. We ran into our friends Lauren and Phil who were travelling home for Christmas as well which was a nice treat! Payton refused to sleep on the plane as there were many people to watch and socialize with and when we were walking to baggage claim she fell asleep in the most awkward position in Lauren's arms, it was pretty funny. (We took a pic with Lauren's phone I'll have to have her send it to me.)
We spent Christmas eve with Grandma, Grandpa, Uncle Kyle and (Great) Grandma Audrey. It was a nice quiet night catching up. Christmas morning Santa had come and filled the stockings and brought lots of fun gifts for us and for Payton. Payton was most excited about the bows, bags wit tissue paper, and boxes. Kole's parents have the entire side of the Harms clan over every year on Christmas afternoon for awesome food and time together. It was a smaller crowd this year and we missed those who couldn't make it, but it was a really nice day. Payton was a big hit, and had no problem hanging out with a house full of new strangers. It was so fun to see everyone and visit!
Monday Kole and I drove back to Chicago to spend the evening with some of his good friends. We met up and Chrissy and Brie's (getting married this September!) with Josh and Michelle and Tracie and Adam. We hung out and watched the second half of the Bears game and then walked to a nearby Brewery for dinner and played trivia. It was really nice adult only catching-up time! We stayed the night and drove back to Rochelle the next morning. Payton entertained Grandma and Grandpa for us while we were gone :) I think Tracie got a picture of all of us at dinner I will try to get.
We spent the rest of the week relaxing and visiting and letting Grandma and Grandpa soak up as much time as they could. Aunt Lana, Uncle Jerry and the O'Malley's even came to visit, which was very special as its a 6 hour drive from Omaha. We were so glad they did though as its always wonderful to see them and Payton adores Marin and Finley.
Payton did great the whole week, slept and ate just like she does at home. Kole and I got to sleep in and/or get up leisurely each morning as the monitor was in his parents' room. A true vacation!!! Payton really mastered her crawling and pulling up skills while we there and is now fully mobile and quick! Our flight home was a breeze, we missed the first snow storm in CO, but got to see the snow left behind. We came home New Year's Eve, getting to our house around 6pm only to find dinner hot and ready for us to eat!! Amber and Williams had made us dinner and it was sitting on the counter ready to eat when we got home. Such a wonderful surprise to come home to at the end of a full day of travelling, on New Year's Eve. We fed the baby, put her to bed, opened a bottle of wine, then champagne, and enjoyed the wonderful dinner. We rang in the New Year with NYC (10pm CO time) and called it a night. The perfect ending to our holiday week)
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