Merry Early Christmas & Road Trippin'

It seems like everything gets a little more hectic around the holiday season. The stores are overcrowded with last minute shoppers, parking lots are complete zoos, kids are anxious to get out of school, work places are busy with holiday parties - and finding a time to get the whole family together to celebrate is nearly impossible.

This Christmas season was exceptionally challenging to nail down a date that worked for everyone. My parents travel to Missouri the Sunday before Christmas, so for the last 5 years we do what we call a "Helleen/Schumer Christmas Gathering." The weekend before Christmas both sides (the Helleen's and Schumer's) gather Saturday evening for dinner, drinks and gift opening. It was such a blast the first year, we deemed it family tradition. 

With Mike and Jennie enjoying their St. Lucia honeymoon over Christmas & New Years (so jealous!) they weren't able to join in on the festivities this year. They were certainly missed, but I can't feel that bad - while we're stuck in chilly temps they're sipping fruity umbrella drinks on a beach. The rest of us celebrated together at our home on Saturday.

My Dad travel to Denmark often for work, and brough an old Danish tradition to the party this year. He served us a hot drink called, "Gløgg." It's a steaming concoction of hot Burgundy wine, aquavit, cinnamon, cloves, raisins and slivered almonds. Although it was delicious, it was so strong! We all sipped our drinks, enjoyed Biaggi's take-out and swapped gifts.

Harper was extremely spoiled, as usual and had no problem ripping the wrapping paper off all her presents. She was even singing "open more presents" in between gifts. She's going to be a busy girl playing with all her new goodies! 

Mitch really out-did himself this year. I've been going on and on for the last 6 months how our kitchen knives are terrible. They are extremely dull, and were just a cheap starter set we got after our wedding. After watching entirely too much Food Network I realized knives are an important part of ones kitchen. I've been admiring nice cutlery sets for some time now, but never wanted to spend that much. For over a month now, Mitch has had my Wüsthof's wrapped and waiting for me under the tree. On top of that, he totally surprised me with an iPad mini! Oh, and yes I realize I sound old and boring wanting new knives - but I'm totally okay with that! :)

We feel very fortunate and blessed to have such great family and this time of year - that's what it's all about. It was such a fun night as usual, yet another successful celebration in the books!

After some deliberation, we decided to change up our usual Christmas plans. This year, we were road-tripping to Missouri to celebrate with my family. While dating, Mitch and I always celebrated Christmas apart. I'd travel to the Show-Me state, and Mitch would stay home with his family back in Minnesota. Once we got married in 2009, we agreed to be "grown-ups" and celebrate together. Being a "grown-up" also meant using PTO (if we had it) and booking airfare or planning the drive. Since those weren't always options for us, we've spent the last 4 Christmas' in Minnesota. Not this year - Missouri here we come!

Since the thought of driving 10-12 hours with Harper in the back seat gave me sweaty palms just thinking about it, we decided to make it a two day trip. Sunday around Noon we started our journey on the open road. We planned to drive 4 1/2 hours to Cedar Rapids, IA which would be the halfway point. We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Cedar Rapids around 4:45pm - just in time to hunker down for the night. We walked across the parking lot to Perkins for dinner, and naturally ended the meal with a piece of cherry pie for me and a cookie for Harper. With a full nights rest and a complimentary hot breakfast, we were back on the road at 9:30am this morning. It was another 4 1/2 hour drive to our hotel in Festus, and we arrived safe and sound early this afternoon. Harper did great both trips, and managed to nap 2 of the 4 1/2 hours today. 

I'm looking forward to my first Missouri Christmas since becoming a Helleen, and sharing the experience with Mitch and Harper makes it that much better. 

Have a very Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Until next time...

The Helleen's