Current mood: exhausted
One last stop.... down South in Sunny San Diego. This is the final year Adrian, Mia and I are seperating Christmas Eve and Christmas between families. Starting next year we are going to start rotating the full holiday between the two families. Splitting them is just too much for our little family. So needless to say after spending the day before Christmas Eve with my parents and Christmas Eve with my Brother and his family (both in Oxnard almost a total of 500 driving miles total), and having our own little family Christmas in the moring, by the afternoon we were bushed but ready to press on. We were on a mission... we were determined to see the Cardoso family and nothing was going to hold us back! So after getting ready, we headed down South. First stop? Great Grandma Estrada's house.
Mia did good on the road, the drive is alittle under a hour and a half. She didn't start getting upset till about mid way through San Diego. Then we had to turn on her little DVD player (the life saver) and she was fine. Once we pulled up to Great Grandma's house we ran into some of Adrian's cousins just as they were leaving. We got to see Oscar, Daniel, Summer and Baby D for a short while. I can't believe how big Baby D is getting and he was so cute just hanging out with a candy cane in his hand. We said hello and caught up as fast as we could, then headed inside the house. Everyone had already visited and left so all that was left was Adrian's Tia Gloria and Great Grandma.
As soon as we got there we were served the best ledgendary tamales and potato salad on the planet. Mia loved them both!! Yes she even ate the beef tamale and liked it! After we got stuffed on awesome food and visited for awhile, Mia wanted to be put down. Just as I feared she went nuts! She started tearing into Great Grandma's Christmas tree, decapitated a snowman, and was zooming around the living room like the tazmanian devil!!! It didn't take long before we decided to go, since we still had to make another very imporant stop at Mia's Grandma's house. So we said our goodbyes, loaded up the car and off to Eastlake we went.
Once we got to Grandma's house we were greated by Grandpa Fernando's best childhood friend Chuy. He was a very nice man. Unfortunately Grandpa Fernando had to work so we were unable to see him, however, he did call us up to wish us a Merry Christmas and to send his love. Grandma was still getting ready and soon greeted us as well. Mia was all over the place and got into everything. She rememebered where Grandma keeps her puzzles and books and soon tore into them. I then put on Mia's new little Elmo slippers and we all got a kick out of watching her run around the hardwood floors in them. We then spent some time visiting while we waited for Adrian's sister Rebeca and his nieces to come by. Adrian's mom made some very tastey roast beef so we chowed down on that. Mia liked it too!!! I quickly asked for the recipe and I can't wait to try cooking it myself!
Soon Tia Rebeca and Mia's cousins Natalia and Brianna showed up. It was a big treat to see them all again since its been awhile. They are getting so big and looked so adorable as they wore matching Christmas dresses. Right away they wanted to open presents so the gift exchanged started even before the grown ups could visit!! haha. All three girls sat together by the presents and just went nuts. Wrapping paper went flying, screams of joy and excitment echoed through the house, and toys flying. Mia was right in the middle of it all, picking up her presents and unwrapping them unassisted!! It was so much fun to watch. Mia of course made out like a bandit. She got two very adorable winter dresses from her Tia, some new giraffe snackie cups and two tiny Sesame Street/Elmo books from her Cousins. Her Grandma and Grandpa got her a big nursery rhyme book, her first talking baby doll, and a couple of new puzzles for her to play with. She was so happy.
After all the presents were opened the girls played with their new toys. Natalia and Brianna both included Mia in their play as well. Brianna kept kissing Mia and saying "I love her". It was so cute. Mia ran around the house and played with her cousins new walkie-talkie. She really liked throwing it down the stairs!! She talked into it as well and was having lots of fun. After visiting, catching up, sharing stories and drinking some hot chocolate it was soon time to go. So we loaded up the car once again said our goodbyes and back on the road we went. However, it wasn't time to leave San Diego just yet. We had one final pit stop.
Adrian's cousin Carina had bought Mia a gift and really wanted her to get it so we stopped by her Mom and Dad's house (where she was staying for the holidays) down the street. Once we arrived there we were greated by Carina who was so excited to see Mia again. She gave Mia her present and Mia opened it in her car seat. She got two new books to read! One was a dinosaur book and the other a little girly book. Carina said she saw the dinosaur book and right away thought of Adrian who LOVED dinosaurs as a kid. She said Adrian could read her the dinosaur book and I could read Mia her other girly book. How sweet!!! We thanked her and soon we were back on the road again... this time to go home.
Mia refused to sleep on the ride home (which was odd since it was late, dark, and she had been running around so much earlier) however she was actually really well behaved. It was the first time in Mia history that she made the trip fully awake and didn't even fuss once. We didn't even need to turn on her DVD player. I think she was happy and didn't want to spoil the day by crying and fussing. She jibber jabbered in the back seat and just hung out. Soon we were home, we unloaded the car, I fed Mia a snackie and off to bed she went. After spending some time with Adrian I later went to bed myself... completely exhausted.
Wow what a holiday!!! We did it!!! We completed all the goals we set out to do. It only took a total of 3 days, 9 hours total in the car and 700+ miles, but we did it! I am so hapy it all worked out. Now we can all sit back and enjoy the weekend to catch our breath. We don't have anything big coming up so we can finally get some much needed rest for awhile....well until next year... only 364 more days till next Christmas.. YIKES!!! haha
Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!
