Some Oklahoma Holiday Cheer

The Friday before Christmas, we loaded up the car around 5:00 p.m. and made the annual marathon drive to Oklahoma (20 hours) with no real plans of when/where we were going to stop and sleep. We put G in her pj's thinking she'd fall asleep after a few hours. No such luck. This kid is just not a car sleeper. She was going strong watching Mickey at midnight and then finally tried to sleep and just couldn't stay asleep longer than 20 minutes. Of course, we were literally in the middle.of.no.where. So we didn't stop until 7am in Albuquerque. I felt so bad, because she was beyond tired. But we stopped and got a hotel for literally 5 hours to sleep and then got back on the road by check out time (noonish). 

In our hotel for our short 5 hour stop (who gets a hotel from 7am-noon? we do). We took advantage of the breakfast buffet when we arrived and chowed down before sleeping. This picture pretty much sums her up at this point - a complete mess. 

After our rest we were ready to go! The irony of her shirt for a 20 hour car ride is apparent :) We made many a stops at Loves and would walk up and down every single aisle so she could stretch her legs (because of course it was freezing cold outside). I now know all the cool audio books they sell, and what the best snacks are. 

We made it to Oklahoma late Saturday night and stayed at Jeff's moms and relaxed the next day. Then we headed to my parents and my brother and his wife came over to decorate gingerbread houses! Giuliana enjoyed it, and especially enjoyed sorting the candies in a bowl. She is such a sorter, it's so funny. Surprisingly, she never even tried to eat the candy. 

Truss and Silvia's house on the left, and G, Jeff and mine on the right. We let her pick out where to put everything, as you can tell. :)

The following day we went to Bass Pro to get our pictures made with Santa, which was a complete nightmare. After waiting in line for an hour, we were almost to the front and their computers died. At this point, you have waited so long, so you don't want to leave. Luckily there was lots to keep Giuliana entertained and Jeff and my Mom were there to help. So we waited another 30 minutes or so and finally got our picture with Santa. Which was literally one picture. Um, hello, I have a toddler, can you not snap a few after I waited in line for an hour and a half? So annoying. last year we went to the mall and they took like 20 pictures and sold us a thumb drive with all of them. Walking to the car after that "fun", Jeff goes "i would totally go back there next year". And he was serious. Yes, I'm sure that was fun for you as you were looking at guns, atvs and knives for an hour.