Christmas 2012 - part 2

The hotel staff at Aloft, Winchester was VERY agreeable to us having a mini-Christmas celebration there in their hotel restaurant / lounge area off of the lobby, for this was the only place in the building that there was a fireplace.  After Christmas Eve dinner at the hotel, we purchased a bag of cookies from the vending area, the restaurant poured a glass of milk for us, and brought a plate so we could set out the cookies for Santa.  Then, we watched a Christmas movie in our room and turned in for the evening.

I was back down in the lounge area twice to feed Isabella in the middle of the night.  It felt a little weird feeding a baby in a lounge area off of the lobby.  People were coming in at all times of night (12 - 1 and again later around 4 – 5 am).  While down there, I got reports from 3^rd-shift hotel staff and new guests who had been on the roads that D.O.T. crews were working on the highways and the roads were clear.  That was great news for our continuation of travels to New Jersey.

Before we hit the road, we snagged a light breakfast and did notice that there were a few gifts laid out at the fireplace. Cool, the milk & cookies seemed to have worked! 

Mercer opened some gifts… we fed the baby again… packed the rental van again… and continued onward to New Jersey we went.  When we finally made it, the family was VERY happy to see us.  We were VERY happy to see them too!

Isabella was whisked from our arms and Mercer was ushered to some more gifts waiting to be opened~ Much of our trip was focused on introducing everyone to the newest member of the family. Pretty much everyone wanted a turn holding the baby.

Here are photos of Grandpa, Uncle Bobby, and Aunt Becki with Isabella.  Somehow, we did not get a photo of Grandma or Aunt Tonia with the little nugget??!!














The house was filled with laughter as Mercer was chased by his cousins and uncles… all while he chased them around with Nerf guns - reciprocating their fire.  Mercer even picked on grandpa as he was sitting in his chair - climbing over the back of it & teasing "you can't catch me."

Cousins Meagan and Marley loved on Isabella and made a comparison between her and a baby doll. 

They even dressed up their American Girl dolls in her clothes! The doll was a little smaller, as seen here!

Mercer and I got out of the house for a bit to go for a walk – one of my favorite things to do in Mountain Lakes, as it is such a beautiful town. Of course – any venture outside requires a visit to the nearby playground.  Mercer has been learning his states.  This was a great mock-up to show him where we live in comparison to all of the grandparents.  He's standing on NJ in this shot.

We played until it started to snow, then walked back home.  It actually snowed quite a bit there. Mercer was not interested in playing in the snow, however.  He said it was too cold!  (agreed!)

The entire family was together for this shot.  To zoom in, click on the photo.  The dog, Wonka, who Jim & Becki brought was in some of the other shots, but not in this one... this shot - however - has both of our children sitting still.  Otherwise, one of them is a blur in every other shot!

Once it was time to head back south, we packed up the rental van one last time and hit the road.  This time, the roads were clear.  The rolling hills of the countryside were still snow-capped and beautiful.  We made it into Charlottesville and met with the woman who we had been conversing with at the car dealer. Todd had picked out a replacement SUV (a couple of years old, but still pretty new).  We had test-drove the same car in NJ previously to know that it was comfortable and comparable in size to the SUV we were abandoning / selling back for "parts."  (The Xterra did require a new engine and it just was not worth making that investment.)  

We bought a 2010 Mercury Mariner which had more safety features as well as comfort bells-and-whistles than the Xterra.  It felt like the transaction took forever and after transferring the contents from the rental van into the newer car + encountering a hiccup with a dead battery, we were finally on the road heading back to NC around 9:00 PM.  It was a late night by the time we made it and we were so grateful to have finished that leg of the trip / anxious to continue home and put driving behind us for quite some time!  

We did sneak in one more visit to Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa's house before hitting the road.  All-in-all, Mercer and Isabella did amazingly well for having spent so much time in the car!  They are both little troopers!

There's really not a good segway to this part, but there are a few things that Mercer has said lately that are priceless:  
-  while in NJ, he called me into the bathroom... he yelled enthusiastically "look -- a wonderful sky!" (the sun was rising and he could see the many colors of the sky out of the bathroom window
- we drove by a pile of snow that had been plowed in a parking lot.  He was completely overwhelmed by how tall the snow was.
- a phrase that he used to say a lot was "because I'm a smart boy" after a number of different scenarios.  Now, his new saying is "easy as peasy."

Happy New Year's Eve~