Day 351

My New York Trip
(Part 1 because it's 2am)

It started out with A LOT of stress. I mean, c'mon, airports right before Christmas in a group of five? No please. And of course I had to have the middle seat between Amanda and Kyle. Again, no please. It was worth it though because the first thing I got after arriving at the house we were staying at was a huge hug from Sam :) Just that hug made the hours of traveling worth it.

The next day we surprised the whole family. My grandparents were first. We stood on their front lawn and my brother played "We Wish you a Merry Christmas" on his trumpet until my grandpa came outside. It was kind of awkward because the song ended the first time and no one came out, so my brother had to play it through again. My grandma was in the kitchen washing dishes in the back of the house and she was so focused that she didn't even notice the six extra people in her house until we called her name. We were supposed to go to my aunt's house next to surprised her and my cousins, but she randomly stopped by my grandma's house with Jake, my younger cousin. She cried. The best though was Aunt Tina because it was the most elaborate. We had Sam just chill in my grandparent's living room right before we knew she was coming over. She was surprised, but even more shocked when I came up from the basement. We played it off like it was just us two visiting for the holidays, then the rest of my family came up. All around, it was awesome, and no one had a heart attack, so I'd call that a total win. We spent Christmas Eve with my Aunt Tina, Uncle John and their adorable puppy Sassy.

The next day was Christmas. Because "Santa" didn't have a stocking for Sam, I filled his up for Christmas and my mom put it by the fireplace in the middle of the night like the rest of ours. No one in my house has believed in Santa for a few years, but we still totally pretend like he's real. We always wake up really early on Christmas morning, so I woke Sam up at 6:30 when we were getting ready to do presents. His first reaction was to ask me what was wrong because I am NEVER up that early. He didn't realize that 6:30 is late for us on Christmas morning.

I loved my presents from him. I got a sweater, a necklace and a scarf (the later I picked out myself because I NEEDED to have it and I asked for a scarf anyways). I also got a kitten figure for my room since I can't have a real one. He even bought it fair trade. He's so good :) My favorite though was the world map he got me. It's scratch off, so you're supposed to scratch off countries after you visit them, but that's not the best part. He went on the travel board I have on Pinterest and found every location I pinned and wrote it on the map. Yeah, he's a keeper and no, I'm not sharing.

We spent Christmas Day with my other aunt's family and my grandparents and it was really cool to reconnected with everyone. It's strange, but no one has really changed much. It felt like we never left. Everyone loved Sam which was a huge relief. It's not that I thought the wouldn't, just the whole meeting the family thing.... yeah. All thumbs up though!

Part Two is coming tomorrow (and there will be pictures)!