We didn't plan on going to the U.S. for the Christmas holidays. But when we saw $800 roundtrip tickets, we said, "Let's Go!" We planned to visit all our family in the tri-state area of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas. We did it! And it was great...mostly. Seeing family and visiting was the best part, the flights and traveling was the worst. I'll try to concisely summarize 3 weeks of vacation...
Our driver came to pick us up at 11:30pm. Chris and I stayed up expecting to sleep on our 2am flight. George went to bed at his regular 8pm bedtime. We figured he needed as much sleep as he could get. We didn't realize that we needed the same consideration.
As we drove to the airport, we ran into a traffic jam! In the middle of the night?! Yes, that's Doha!
Our flight was pretty smooth, except for a bumpy landing. We all slept, some, but not enough. We arrived to Heathrow airport in London exhausted and bleary eyed. Chris spent his 6 hour lay-over shopping for swiss chocolate. George played with his cars and other kids. I nodded off sitting in the uncomfortable airport chairs. We were glad when we could go to our gate and board our next flight going to Dallas.
One funny observation while in the London airport. In Doha, all the restroom stalls have spray water hoses for an"extra good cleaning" when you finish your business. Because of this all the restroom floors in Doha are wet. When I went to the restrooms at the airport in London, I was thrilled to find the floors in the restrooms were dry! The things we take for granted...
We landed in Dallas late at night and went straight to our hotel after getting our rental car. George was having nothing to do with the portable crib, so being exhausted, we let him sleep with us. Needless to say, George slept great, but Chris and I didn't.
We made our way to Texarkana to see Chris' brother Tim and his family, Sharon, his wife and two boys, Carter and Brett. They are very close in age to George, so we knew they would have a blast together. And boy did they! They played with cars and trucks, jumped in the leaves, rode bikes, and more. We really enjoyed our few days of visiting, playing and eating great food, like juicy steaks, BBQ pork, melt in your mouth chocolate. Yes, our holiday eating binge had started.
Chris, George and Uncle Tim
Brett, Carter and George
George and cousin Brett
After our days of playing with cousins, we packed up for the two to three hour drive to Nana's and Papa's. Of course, sleep deprieved George fell right to sleep in this car seat. Our visit there spanned Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It felt great to be with family and feel of their love for us and their interest in us and our far away home in Doha.
Grandma Betty Holt, Presley, Taylor, George and Papa George
Chris, George and Papa George
Christmas Morning
George loved the horses at Nana's and Papa's. He wanted to go outside and see them all the time, even when it was dark and he couldn't even see the horses. He got to play with his cousins, Taylor and Presley at the school playground where Chris played when he went there for elementary school.
George and cousin Presley ("Pesley")
George getting a back scratch from Aunt Jessica.
George still had trouble sleeping and ended up learning to sleep in a big kid bed while on this holiday. That was something we didn't plan on doing until sometime after he was three years old. George has his own timetable with some things.
The car was loaded with all our Christmas goodies from Santa and we headed out on the longest leg of our journey, Kingsland to New Orleans, about 7 hours. We arrived at my sister, Amy's house at about 4 in the afternoon. We exchanged gifts and let the kids play. Her daughter, Emily played" Jingle Bells" on her keyboard while George stood nearby and "sang". That was George's favorite Christmas song this year. He still sings it sometimes. Nicholas and I played "I Spy" on the computer. Cooper and George had fun playing together, too.
Time flew and we were off to my mom's home in Gretna, on the Westbank. It was so comforting to be with my mom in her and Don's home. We sat back and relaxed, eating more chocolate and pork products. George played at a couple of parks, showing Grandma his swinging, climbing and sliding skills. Their neighbor has a large, furry, white dog that George loved to see. He wanted to go outside and see him all the time! Luckily, Don loves to play with the dog, too, so the two of them made the dog fat by feeding him endless biscuits. This is where George really learned to sleep in a toddler bed. We had a couple of nights with him coming out after we put him to bed and crying at the door. I was exhausted and Chris stepped up and put his foot down. George listened and is still doing great with his crib converted to a toddler bed. My mom and I did some shopping on a rainy day, our favorite thing to do.
George getting rocked and sung to by Grandma Becky. She is singing "Over in the Meadow".
George and Grandpa Don
Sadly, our time in Louisiana was over and we made our way to Houston. We were growing tired of staying in other people's homes, eventhough it was family. We decided to get a hotel room in Katy. There are small benefits, such as not having to clean up all your stuff out of the shared bathroom each time you use it. We really are grateful for our family letting us stay with them during our visits. It is so great to spend all that time with them. Especially when these kinds of visits aren't too frequent.
We enjoyed our short time in Houston. We attended our former ward, Katy 2nd. It was such warm, familiar feeling walking into the chapel for sacrament meeting. But it felt odd attending their Sunday School and Relief Society since I was serving in primary for the last 3 years of our time in the ward. George walked right into nursery and started playing like he had never left. It was fun to see how his friends had grown in the last five months, Lucy, Eliza, Katelyn and Brooklyn. Yes, George had many girlfriends in Katy.
Our time ran out quickly in Houston. We had to take George to the doctor for a cough he developed. We needed to shop to stock up on some items that are either impossible to find or are way too expensive to buy in Doha. We also spent most of one day in the Houston Temple, which was wonderful! We're pretty sure Doha is in the Swiss temple district. That's a bit far for regular attendance.
Our journey back to Doha included a 5 hour layover in France. We left Dallas an hour late, so that made our layover an hour shorter. Charles deGaulle Airport was a nightmare, old, confusing and backward. We were glad to get on our last airplane, Qatar Airways, next stop, Doha, home.
We all slept on this last flight; George, in my arms for the last 4 hours. My arms were so tired, I could hardly move them to put him in his seat for landing. He stayed asleep for the whole approach and landing. He woke up when they turned on the lights and people started getting their bags.
YAY! We're home!
We thought we were home free, but when getting our luggage from baggage claim, we never saw our car seat. Yikes! Why did that have to be the thing that was lost?! Chris finally got to talk to someone about it, tracked it and found it was coming in on a later flight. We had to drive home without it. I held George in my lap as I sat in the back seat. Luckily Doha doesn't have a law about car seats. Often we see children riding in the laps of adults or standing up in the car. With the way people drive over here it makes no sense. The risk is too high. We had a great driver take us home, so I felt some security in that. We arrived without incident, and promptly began to unpack some neccessities. After getting George to his bed, we kept unpacking until we realized it was 3 am and we needed to sleep. Then began our struggle to get back on Doha time. Now, a week later, we are pretty much adjusted. We are sleeping okay, have been to the grocery store, a couple of times, have been to church and visited with our neighbors and friends. I even organized and went to our walking group. I think things are getting back to normal, or least to what we know as normal in Doha.
We hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year holiday. Ours was special since we were with family. We look forward to what this new year of 2011 holds for us. May it bring you happiness and peace.
