Christmas in CT

So let's backtrack a bit to Christmas, shall we? 

It started out with 3 adults, 2 dogs, 1 child, and a lot of gifts packed into our Ford. Remarkably, it worked out really well. At least until we got to CT, when traffic came to a screeching halt. 

Oh, and then we also had our share of ailments. Rob threw out his back. Zack had some sort of weird stomach bug (though he was totally fine on Christmas day). And I was fighting a cold. 

All that didn't stop us from having a good time, however. It's so wonderful watching Zack still believe in Santa. We've always had a PJ Elf deliver Christmas jammies to Zack on Christmas Eve. Last year he wasn't thrilled with getting pjs. This year he was totally into it. He'd made a fort in the den, which is where the PJ Elf left his packages. Zack knew they were going to be pi's, but he was really excited about it. What was funny was that earlier in the day, Grandpa Jim had gotten a Christmas Darth Vader shirt, so as soon as Zack opened his jammies, he said "Just like Grandpa Jim's!" And he was over the moon when he opened his blanket. We have two other cotton fleece blankets, and he'd been saying that he wanted this own because the blanket felt like Bear Bear, so he was just blown away that the PJ Elf knew he wanted his own blanket. 

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I had been sleeping in the same room as Zack that night, so I heard him get up around 7 Christmas morning and tiptoe out to the living room. I heard him find the note that Santa left him (see above), and then take it out to Nonni to read (I found out later that he read the whole thing by himself). Then he came back in to me, pure joy and amazement on his face: "Mommy! Santa said I was a good boy! Look!" And then he had to go in and show Rob the same thing. The rest of the day, if anyone asked about Santa, he told them that Santa thought he was a good boy. 

All in all, it was a really good trip. We got to see a lot of family, Zack got a lot of love. He got to spend time with Ella, and with his older cousins, too (many thanks to Taryn, Terysa, and Tyler for spending hours with him, putting Lego sets together!!!).