We're Back!

And we had a great time.

Madeleine is quite the little traveller - I'm not exaggerating when I say that she did not cry ONE TIME on either the trip there or back. And it was a good 9 hours of travel time each way. I could not believe it. She was perfect. We left early, she slept, we stopped for breakfast, she played and took her morning nap, we stopped for lunch, she played and took her afternoon nap and then we were there.

We had a great time seeing all of our relatives. Mom is the oldest of 8 and all but one of them were there. We missed you Uncle Ray and Aunt Cindy! We stayed at a monastery, which was really nice after Mom traded rooms with us. She got the suite with two rooms, a refrigerator and a sink, and a TV. At first we got the room with a small bed, no TV, no chairs, and no space in the bathroom. After we spent a little time at Aunt Christy's house on Wednesday, we decided to make a few trips over to St. Bernard's to bring the food to the dining room. After the first trip, I decided to stay while they made their second trip, since Madeleine had been in the car so much already. They said they were just going to get a load and come right back. They were gone for FOUR HOURS!!! They left me there to fend for myself, no food, no drink, and NO TV. Madeleine and I walked around the hall and dining room for about two hours, I fed her dinner, and then we decided to "break into" Aunt Pat's room to watch TV and sit on some comfortable furniture. Madeleine immediately fell asleep and I held her for about another two hours while I waited for Mom to come back and bring me some food. Then Mom graciously traded rooms with us so that I wouldn't have to go to bed at 7:30 when Madeleine went to bed. (We did bring a monitor, but the dining room was too far away for it to work, so we stayed in our room after she went to bed.)

The next day, Madeleine decided to celebrate Thanksgiving by waking up for the day at 4:30AM! So even though she took two naps (I did too!) she was just exhausted by dinnertime. She would not eat her sweet potatoes, her puffs, or her peas. She did enjoy the "cookie" -really a teething biscuit. She enjoyed it so much that we had to stick her in the sink afterwards. Our computer is still down at home so I'll get some pictures up soon. She did pretty well with the family - but she didn't really go to anyone except my Uncle Bobby. He is my favorite Uncle too :) My Uncle Leo took Bobby on a golf trip with some of his policeman friends and one of them said that Bobby is one of the ten nicest guys he's ever met in his life. It's true.

Of course, the Colts were playing on Thursday night. Ken made me call down there last week to inquire if they had the NFL network. They did not. So some of my uncles and cousins decided to take it upon themselves to set up a satellite dish so they could get all the football games on the big screen in the dining room. They worked on it all morning. I don't know how they did it and I'm not sure I want to know. My cousin Jennifer was in the room across from mine and she very nicely stayed in her room with her kids and the monitor so I could watch the game. We won, too! Two of my cousins left around 9pm to go sit outside Best Buy to get some of the Black Friday deals. All night long. In the freezing cold. They are crazy. But not as crazy as some people who got there at 1pm. They were 75th in line.

I enjoyed eating the turkey, ham, bread and cranberry sauce. That's it. I couldn't have the mashed potatoes, the sweet potatoes, the corn pudding, the green bean casserole, the cheesecake or the pumpkin pie because they all had dairy in them. And in another quest for the Mother of the Year award, after her bath I put some lotion on her that had buttermilk in it. On Friday she had the worst rash I have ever seen. It looked like she'd been burned all over. Surprisingly, it did not seem to bother her one bit. I will be more careful next time.

On Friday, we got to go to Our Lady of the Angels. I've been before but I just love it. Their shrine is just incredible. We got to go downstairs to see the little chapel where some of the sisters are buried, including Mother Angelica's mother, Sister David, and her best friend, Sister Raphael. I just finished her biography by Raymond Arroyo not too long ago. We got to go see the Christmas room, which is a creche built into a cave. Madeleine loved looking at the manger scene, the stained glass windows, and the candles. Unfortunately the gift shop was closed! We'll just have to go back soon.

Then we went to a few little shops in downtown Cullman - mostly baby stores because those are the most fun! Madeleine got some new shoes which look adorable on her. She has quite a bit of growing room too. She has recently outgrown all her shoes. Plus they were 30% off. The rest of the stores were way too pricey for me, but I got lots of good ideas of things that I could make. We also found a coffee shop so I got my iced soy chai fix.

We drove home Saturday, then spent Sunday doing laundry, grocery shopping, and getting our newly painted room ready for our Christmas decorations. If you've made it this far, I'm impressed! I hope you all had a great holiday too.