The trip is hellishly long - approximately 28 hours door to door. But Gabe was an amazing traveller. We got the baby basinet on the flight from Buenos Aires to New York and he slept from as soon as they gave it to us until they started serving breakfast in the morning. On the connecting flight, I stood up to ask the people in front of us if they would switch us places as our arm rest didn't raise and we wanted gabe to sleep across our laps. As soon as I started to ask the third person in the row mumbled "oh please say no" so I sat down in shocked silence. Everyone in Argentina LOOOOOOVES babies, and never seems to be inconvenienced by them in any way. That was the first time I had a reaction other than adoration and it was a bit of a surprise. Mario laughed and grumbled "welcome to the USA!"
Gabe (and Mario) got an overdose of family on this trip, but that is why we went and it was really wonderful to get to spend so much time with my family. Here he is Christmas Sunday with his dad and Grandpa.
We all went to Josh & Misty's house in the mountains for Christmas. "Babe" and Cade calls him, loved his cousins and they loved him. Cade was particularly physically demonstrative with his affection.
Ashley and I have particularly good memories about Christmas' past and performing the nativity with the Thomas family in California every year. As we now have nieces and nephews old enough to coerce, we enforce the re-enactment annually. I'm not sure they enjoy it as much as we remember enjoying it, but I'm sure if we continue to talk about how great it is some day their memories of the Christmas nativity will be as great as ours!
Gabe seemed to thoroughly appreciate his first Christmas - as we opened his presents, thanks his aunts, uncles and grandparents, he played with the same piece of wrapping paper the entire time.
Some of you will be surprised to know that there actually IS snow in some parts of Arizona, and we had a white Christmas that inspired all to put on all the clothes they had at the same time, go out to sled, and return within 20 minutes because, p.s. snow is cold, and when you sled you have to WALK up the snowy hill! Mario, Josh, Lindsay & Matt take photo evidence before returning to the house.
We also made gingerbread houses, but don't look too closely because more candy was consumed than used to decorate.
The day after Christmas Mario surprised me by saying he WANTED to go fishing with my dad. He has never been fishing, has never expressed any interest in fishing, so I'm pretty sure he just wanted to get out of the house. He had to walk a long distance wearing lots of heavy clothing then stand for several hours alongside a stream in very cold weather. I think his face relays his sentiments.
A couple of days after Christmas, we went to Utah to spend a week with Mario's brother Enrique and his family. A definite highlight was everyone sitting around enamored with Gabe, who would just smile and squeal and giggle.
It was insanely cold (at least for us) in Utah, so that limited a bit what we could do. But we did get to visit beautiful temple square, Park City, and varios friends and family.
Including my unvle Ken, Aunt Jayna, and cousin Tyler who happened to be in town. So fun to see them!
Mostly we just spent time with one of the most fun families ever. They have seven kids, we were there one week, and NOT ONCE did the kids fight! Seriously, amazing. We love them so much and are so grateful to have had that time with them.
On the way home from Utah, we spent a couple of days in Las Vegas indulging Mario's fascination with the bright lights. Truly, Vegas is over the top in every single thing they do, and it is fun to visit every once in a while. For Mario's birthday this last year I got us tickets to "Le Reve" and the Wynn hotel while we were there. It was truly a spectacle, we were completely awed at the imagination, creativity and technology that went into it, and we don't feel the need to spend that much money again.
On the way home from Utah, we spent a couple of days in Las Vegas indulging Mario's fascination with the bright lights. Truly, Vegas is over the top in every single thing they do, and it is fun to visit every once in a while. For Mario's birthday this last year I got us tickets to "Le Reve" and the Wynn hotel while we were there. It was truly a spectacle, we were completely awed at the imagination, creativity and technology that went into it, and we don't feel the need to spend that much money again.
4 comments:
You guys were busy, but how nice that everyone got to see you both and meet Gabe! I am sure Mario wanted to die a few times in California as well, all of us girls non stop.....
come back.
Okay, overloaded with comments. Can't remember them all, but thanks for the update. We DO need to talk soon.
A-
Love that you do this and keep us in the loop (by the way Ash gave me your blogg address) and maybe the next time I will get to make to AZ to see you while there!
Lettie
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