A Merry Packer Christmas

The second half of our Christmas dream vacation was spent in Alpine with the Packers.

There was a whole lot of sick going on with the Packers, which may have altered our plans, but did not alter our fun. (Talk about Hallmark moment).

The kids and I were some of the only healthy ones, so we took advantage of the snow around the house.

(the only gloves Ethan could find in his 12 second search were some women's leather ones, but he clearly was just fine with that)

Grandma was a good sport, and even a dirty fighter at times, if I'm being honest. ;)

We were able to meet up the the Hales and Worthens, some of our dearest friends from the Chicago Law School days. Back in those days, there was one kid among the three couples and our conversations ran a little more smoothly. We kept laughing at how our lives had changed and seeing each other as parents now is a pretty funny sight. Here's 8 of the now 9 kids between us:

And here's the adults, all old and wrinkly. Oh no, wait. That's just me. Everyone else looks EXACTLY the same.

We ALL had a BLAST.

Grandma is always good for some cousin camp crafting. This was just one of the many.

The girls got to sneak out one afternoon for a nice lunch and the Nutcracker.

Kate might even have enjoyed it as much as I did.

And, now, I present to you:

Packer Cousins in Christmas Jammies.

"How was the drive home?" you may ask. 

Don't ask this guy.

He wouldn't know.
(This is another one of those "you know you're a parent when..." moments, where the person who sat in the driver's seat for two long days got the better end of the deal.)

But even I have to admit, it was pretty great. The twins were fantastic. Not a tear or a fight to account for. 

Yes, there were lots of movies and iPad activities. But there was also a lot of this:

but not nearly enough of this:

Did I say that out loud? What I meant to say was, Drew was a dream. Definitely did not ask 3 million questions in a 22 hour time. It didn't help that the kid doesn't like movies. So I guess considering that, he was pretty good, too. And it was pretty sad/cute, when we woke up the morning after we got home, he asked, "Do we have to get in the car and drive more today?"
Fine, I'll keep him.

Seriously, great trip. Not saying I want to make that drive every week, but it was WELL WORTH the fun we had. We are so lucky to have such wonderful families, who were willing to work around our schedules so that we could spend time with everyone.