Merry Christmas to All!

We made a pit-stop on the way to the beach back in November at an um.. pit stop or more accurately put a Rest Area. We rested there. NOT. There is no such thing as a REST area when you have a large romping family. Any "resting" actually occurs when we are safe in the van. If you don't believe what I'm saying then come with me for a quick review of what the average Rest Area detour looks like.

As soon as we pull into one of those so-called Rest Areas the panic begins. It never fails that we slip into a parking spot, slide open the van door and things start falling out. From some of the kids to various bouncing balls we didn't know we had with us to bits of trash being caught up by the wind, the chase then begins... Ahhh, and so does the sanctification. Inevitably, we catch the eye of many type of people. Some will start looking, others will stare, some just grimace at the sound of the huge, knock the hearing out of your eardrums, sound coming from our diesel engine, while others run and jump in their cars and speed away. Then there are those folks who say, "Hey we saw you driving on the road.. How many kids in your van?" Yah, that's our rest area experience for the first minute. Next comes actually getting kids split up into groups of:

1. Who's gotta go
2. Who's gonna have an accident if they don't go and...
3. Who's already gone? :(

Yah, Jake and I split up the groups and tackle the issues. It never fails that loud, obnoxious comments about the condition of the rest area come bursting out of the lips of the babes. It's always quite mortifying. Not the mess, but the fact that my little ones are pointing it out in grim detail.

On more than one occasion, actually almost every occasion unless it's raining, I emerge from the toilet to find Jake and sons doing the Rest Area push ups. Chase that down with some jumping jacks, kids playing chase, somebody falling and scraping a knee and our dog dragging himself across the 'pet walk area' instead of actually walking and you get the picture of the Rest Area dysfunction's and the notion that we aren't resting.

I'm coming back to the topic of this entry right now. So, we made a stop at a Rest Area. At the Rest Areas in Va there are these lovely LOVE letters displayed. The kids of course needed to craw all over the things and touch every part of them. I whipped out the camera and tried to regain some order so we could get a LOVEly picture. Well, a very kind college student came up from behind and offered to take a picture of all of us. Mind you this was after the push ups, the division of groups, the dog wasn't there this time, and so on. So, we were ready to pile in the van and REST for real. The guy did great. I had a small fear that he was going to run off with Jake's Iphone, but he didn't. Instead he got this great shot and our Christmas card was birthed. Notice that Samuel is running, but at least he's accounted for. Thank you College student from William & Mary wherever you are.

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends!

As a disclaimer, my older children are very controlled and a HUGE help to us during these times of rest..