Albuquerque Trip without Sam

Sam's last post mentioned how he couldn't come to New Mexico for Christmas this year. We were pretty optimistic and had great plans, but New Mexico all but locked down its boarders, making it impossible for Sam to get permission to go. We really got our first taste of the Air Force really telling Sam where he can or can't be on his time off. 

Well, again I said we were optimistic because I already sent all our Christmas gifts to my parents' house 😰so I decided to try my first solo trip (without Sam) to Albuquerque a week early, driving me and the kids all the way there. In order to do this I had to rely on Joey to take care of his siblings since he was the only one who could buckle and unbuckle himself at the time. I thought it would take us a long time to get to Albuquerque, but in actuality we made it the same amount of time! We stopped halfway in Lubbock for some Dion's (where I found out Lubbock is pretty lax about the mandatory mask rule, I even saw a police officer without one walking around in the restaurant). The only bump in the road getting to Albuquerque was having to hit a dog (so literally a bump in the road). I saw him coming from the distance, but I had cars next to me and in back of me so I had no where to go to avoid it. It made a decent dent in our van but otherwise we were okay. Can't say the same for the dog! We made it safely to Albuquerque and had an amazing party the next day with the Hobbs family.

We started off celebrating Eli's birthday. I bought a piñata for all the cousins and it was a hit (pun intended)! Here are all the fabulous hits the kids got in:

Older kids were blindfolded!

Followed by the opening of gifts! Thank you everyone!

Jenny was absolutely amazing in planning a Christmas party. She had everyone wear their Christmas best, planned a fancy dinner, and we ended with a talent show, matching pj's (except my family, but that was my choice...), and a gift exchange. I'll just show all the photos and comment.

Boy cousins (minus our little guy).

Jenny bought these tiaras and I felt rather pretty
despite my fat and squinty-eyed self!

The wonderful hosts!

Sam's siblings. Missed my hubby!

Eden charming everyone around her!

Look at that belly!

Talent show. We tried to hum and lip Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.

All the boys. My boys definitely are the worst picture takers 😩

But Jenny still managed to coax a great picture of Joey and Chloe.

Fancy fancy dinner!

Siblings and spouses...once again missing my hubby!

Yep, it was amazing!

Classic food-in-mouth photo.

Gift exchange!

Jacob being an amazing waiter and filling up our glasses.

We made sure to do everything first to minimize the possible spread of Covid to the Hobbs family. Jenny wanted to be extra cautious and made sure everyone got tested before coming. So I got my Covid test (negative) and headed up.

I'm always terrible at taking photos with my family. But if you notice I didn't take many of the photos above. Jenny was the one documenting everything.  But I'll give a quick overview of the rest of our visit.

• I made the baby's stocking (no photo of course)
• The boys did virtual school (and made me remember why I sent them back as soon as possible)
• I got to see my siblings, including Heidi who had her twins on the 12th
• Helped my mom put the Christmas tree up
• Visited with my best friend
• Found out Sam didn't match
• Found out we were moving to Los Angeles!
• Visited with Shauna at Sam's parents' house

Sam did a really good job talking about his Fellowship story, and I was a state over when it all happened. At that point I would be happy to go anywhere! So maybe it was a real blessing it happened this way, because it really felt we were meant to go to Los Angeles. Sam didn't apply, and pretty sure he wouldn't have gotten an interview from them, so God Himself orchestrated this for us, I know it. The boys are super excited and started telling us all the things he wanted to do, including visiting the Hollywood sign: 

Love that kid!

My sister also had a really rough month. Her kids came home with Covid and being pregnant with twins and high risk she was freaking out! She ended up being hospitalized, got a c-section at 33 weeks, and indeed contracted Covid. All of this really did a number on her because she was hospitalized an additional two times after that, and had babies in the NICU. Luckily they are all home and doing alright. I believe one baby still takes oxygen and my sister developed a heart problem, but hopefully she recovers! It sounded like the most stressful month of her life!

And we finished 2020!! What a year!