Day 8-10 In Texas: Christmas With My Family and Time With Big Grandpa

Day 8: Sunday 12/21

    As soon as everybody woke up in the morning, Ellie and Timmy started begging us to open their presents from us. We told them we would do it the night before, but since we didn't get home until late, we never got a chance. Since Nick was going back to Corpus today, we went ahead and did it first thing in the morning. 

Day 7 In Texas: Get Together at G&P Ranch

Day 7: Saturday 12/20

   When go to Texas, we love seeing all of our family and friends. The hard part is finding the time to see everyone. My parents had a great idea to have a get together with both my mom and dads sides of the family at my aunt and uncles ranch. This made it so much easier to see my aunts, uncles, and cousins without having to drive all over South Texas. Thank you to everyone that came, I loved seeing each and every one of you. Connor had a really great time playing with his cousins and getting really dirty!

Day 4-6 In Texas: Eating Cookies, Playing Catch, and Watching Deer

Day 4: Wednesday 12/17

    After waking up to play at 3am and going back to sleep for a couple more hours, we started our morning by eating breakfast and talking to my sister on her way to work. Connor wanted to take over the conversation, so we let him talk to her for a good 5 minutes. I was shocked she stayed on the phone for that long!

Day 1-3 In Texas: Airplanes, Suprises, and Pictures With Santa

Day 1: Sunday 12/14   

     Early in the morning before the sun even came up, Aaron, Connor and I drove to Malpensa Airport in Milan. Aaron and I decided it would be best for Connor and me to leave a few days early because the flights were starting to fill up. Our chances of getting on a flight as a standby passenger would be much better on 12/14 then 12/18 {when Aaron got off for winter break and was planning on flying}. 

     My wonderful father-in-law offered to fly to Milan to help me with Connor on the long flight. Our plan was to meet him at the airport and he would help me check my bags and go through security. Well, that sort of changed when his flight to Milan was delayed by 5 hours! Aaron helped me get all of our bags to the ticket counter, but I had to wait in the line for the next 2 hours to get checked in and put on a different flight. Our original flight was going to JFK and there were several unsold seats and we were pretty much guaranteed a seat on that plane, but we weren't going to be able to make it since Pappy wasn't going to land in Milan on time. Our only other option {since there are only 2 flights to the US out of Milan a day} was to fly to Miami. The flight was delayed 2 hours, and we were told we probably wouldn't make it because it was so full. I had them take our luggage anyways and as I was on my way to security, here comes pappy to the rescue! He saw just how much work it is to go through security with a baby! We walked what seemed like 5 miles to the gate, and waited for them to call our names.

 Watching the airplanes go by.

Santa Came On New Year's Eve?!?

     First off, Happy New Year! After being away for 18 days and a loooooong flight home, we are finally back in Italy. Our flight got in at 5:30 yesterday morning, and a friend picked us up at 7:30. After we dropped her off, we had to run to the grocery store and buy gas coupons. All 3 of us were cranky by the time we got home and Connor still wasn't feeling well. He has been sick with a cold {the same one that we have had for about a month and a half and seen the doctor twice for} and upset stomach off and on. Right after we walked inside our freezing house, he threw up on himself and me. Ick! We took a shower and then went to sleep. Six hours later and we all woke up. We needed that long nap! We were pretty hungry by this time, so I made dinner and Connor finally ate a good meal {he has been really picky the whole trip and not eating a lot}. After we cleaned up, we watched an episode of Downton Abbey and Connor fell asleep on me.

My sleepy boy!