Bright and Early (WAY too early)

This year for Christmas we spent the morning at home and then headed off to San Diego to celebrate Grandma Kenney's 75th birthday. We woke the kids (yes, that's right..we wokethe kids at 5:30am to open their gifts from Santa. They had decided that they wanted to make it to San Diego in time for Christmas Dinner so we needed to leave early to do it. After a sleepy (grumpy) start we got things going and got on the road. We tried to make it festive by keeping some of the same traditions that we would have had at home but it was just not the same. Somehow, my Christmas morning coffee cake is not quite as good with "the middle of nowhere" as a backdrop. And reading Christmas books out loud while squished into the car, not so fun either. And gas station bathroom didn't have the same ambiance as the cozy fore at home (go figure!) So, while we really enjoyed spending Christmas evening with family, we will definitely NOT be doing that again.