Jilly Bean & Company: Christmas Adventures

Christmas brought a week full of little adventures. Our original plan was to drive to Des Moines early Christmas morning, since Matt was working an odd evening shift until midnight through Christmas Eve. There, we would join the rest of the Birnbaums for the remainder of the holiday weekend. Mother Nature had other plans, however, that came in the form of a massive blizzard-like storm set to hit its hardest Christmas Eve and Christmas day. It didn't look very promising for us. After much toiling, we decided that Jillian and I should go down early. Matt felt that he would have a better chance of making it alone, and would have freedom to work with the timing of the weather if he didn't have to worry about having Jillian in the car. We also didn't want to have two cars in Des Moines, and I admit I am not ready to fly solo on a road trip with our wild child yet....so Grandad came to the rescue! He drove up on Tuesday to pick Jilly and I up and hauled us back to Des Moines. What a guy!
Aunt Meggie and Uncle D arrived the same night, and Aunt Mal and John came early Christmas Eve. Around 10:30 on Christmas Eve, Matt called to say that he got off early and the weather didn't look too bad. He wasn't tired, and was ready to start out. Around midnight he called singing a different tune. The roads had gotten terrible and he was in the midst of disastrous driving conditions. An hour later, he finally called to say he had made it halfway, but had to stop due to the closure of I-35--it was too bad to continue. So, he spent the night alone in Clear Lake, Iowa, but was thankfully safe and warm. Christmas day brought a break in the storm, and Matt was able to make it just in time for lunch! It was wonderful to have him finally arrive safely. I think Jillian must have known we were all worried, because she basically didn't sleep from around midnight until about 3:30, and even then insisted on being held. Needless to say, we were all tired! We enjoyed our usual Christmas traditions of lounging all day in our new pajamas, watching movies, eating relentlessly and playing games. On Saturday, the ladies and gents took turns Jilly-wrangling so we could all go out and see a movie. The guys enjoyed wearing 3D glasses at Avatar, and us girls had fun watching New Moon together.
Sunday began with the intent for more relaxation and lots of eating, but it turned into a rough day for Grammy! She slipped on the tile in the entry and broke her wrist. She is in a lot of pain, but should get some relief soon after her surgery on New Year's Eve. Thankfully, it is her non-dominant hand and she has lots of help from Grandad and Aunt Meggie this week. Jillian told me she wanted to stay and help, but something tells me (mainly her love for destructive exploration!)she wouldn't be so helpful at her age :)
Despite the bumps in the road, we had a wonderful visit and enjoyed our time as usual. I somehow didn't take very many pictures (Lazy? Perhaps. Busy trying to tame the wild child? Certainly.), but here is a sampling of what I managed to capture of Jillian's holiday experience this year.

Ready for church on Christmas Eve. I should point out that Jillian was excellent during the service and loved people-watching (just like her mother!). She liked to dance during the music.