I promise I didn't fall off the face of the earth...

I found that writing in my blog while trying to visit everyone in our collective families with only 2 weeks to do it was something that didn't allow for much downtime. It got to the point where we were scheduling visits & having to cut things short. I don't like doing that. And I didn't even get to see some of my friends. Bummer. But even with all the stress, and there was a ton of stress, it was nice to visit & see everyone we could. Jeff saw his brother & our niece, Ariel. We also met our other neice & nephew, Garrett & Ashley, for the first time.
We once again found out some of the cons to living in CA. 1) Traffic: we drove to Taft from Ventura & got stuck on the Grapevine for 2 1/2 hours, making a trip that should have only taken 2 hours, into a 5 hour ordeal. We had to make a makeshift toilet for Emma out of a diaper because she was about to pee her pants. It was fun.
2) Crowds: I know they have crowds here in Michigan, but not where we live. Apparently we'd have to deal with this if we wanted to live in civilization again.
But at least people both in Michigan & California are rude & can't drive, so it's universal.
One of the other issues was trying to figure out how we were going to get all of our stuff back into our suitcases. We didn't realize how much we were going to be blessed with for Christmas, and were completely unprepared for it. We borrowed one suitcase and had to buy another one to replace one of ours that broke during the trip, and we still had to leave stuff behind. But, with the promise that it would be mailed to us.
Emma is starting to understand the concept of different generations a little better. She knows that her aunts & uncles are mommy & daddy's sisters & brothers. Though the concept of cousin is still a little foggy for her. And she now is calling our grandparents "great-grandpa & great-grandma". Before, EVERYONE was grandma or -pa. Now it's a little more clear. Although she still insists on calling my brothers "boy" and "small boy", even though they're now 17 & 12. I guess right now there's just too many names to process in such a short amount of time.