Christmas in South Carolina

Who takes a 5 month old on a road trip half-way across the country?

....Us. We do. 

We set off from Illinois on the evening December 8th (a Friday) and drove until 1-ish AM and stayed in a hotel in Tennessee to get a few hours of sleep. We planned ahead and the first leg of the drive was..pretty uneventful and went according to plan. Thatcher slept for 85% of the 7 hours we were in the car. 

However, by the time we got a room and got settled, he was WIDE AWAKE and wanted nothing to do with sleep. He was in a new place and hates his Pack-n-play. So naturally, he screamed. Momma didn't get more than an hour and a half of sleep at best that night.

I have never been a caffeine drinker, but when it came time for breakfast the next morning, I (and a tired, whiny baby) went down to the hotel lobby and I got a cup of the 'house blend'. It was horrible. But I gulped it down anyways and went and took advantage of the free continental breakfast. Lucky for me, the breakfast area had a TV and Thatcher loves TV so he sat on my lap and watched the Weather Channel. (That's what was on). 

We were only 4 hours from my parent's house, but it took us nearly 6 hours to make it there. On our route, we have to drive through part of the Smoky Mountains at the eastern edge of Tennessee/western border of North Carolina. This particular area had gotten 3-4 inches of snow the night before and though the roads were fine, anytime there is the mention of snow- people freak out and you almost always have "that car" that thinks they need to drive 30mph and/or truckers that block both lanes of the highway because the one in the left lane is going like, 2mph faster than the one in the right lane and it takes them 10 miles to actually pass the other one. We got lucky enough to encounter both kinds of drivers-multiple times!

Thatcher took a nap for most of that part of the drive, so I was able to look around and appreciate the snow-covered mountains.  

 We were going to stop at the mountain rest area just inside North Carolina and let Thatcher meet snow for the first time, but again, he was sleeping and we weren't going to "poke the bear" so to speak. Besides, about 30 minutes later, he woke up SCREAMING and had a complete meltdown and we had to stop at a Wal-mart in Hendersonville, NC. 

We finally did make it to my parents house and all things considered- Thatcher did excellent for being in his car seat for so long and we only had one real meltdown. 

If you are able, definitely travel by night when traveling with small children. The 4 hours we drove during the day felt much longer than the 7 hours we drove at night while he slept. 

We had a great week visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. We had Christmas, drove through some Christmas lights, took Thatcher to the beach for the first time and put his feet in the sand (he hated it), built a gingerbread house, and put together part of a puzzle. My Christmas gift was a spa day, so I got to get an hour massage and Micah and I had several lunch dates just the two of us while Grandma babysat. We ended our visit with a trip to North Carolina and I have that in my next post. 

For now, here are a few pictures from our latest adventure! 

       

     

 

Side note: my mom sent me a picture earlier this week, my step-dad and brother finished the puzzle.

 

 
 If you're a repeat reader of my ramblings: well, first of all, thank you! But second, make sure you read my last post for 2017. Exciting things are coming in 2018