Interview Trail- Part #2 and Christmas

One might wonder, what happen to the Blacks? It has been almost a full month since our last posting. Well, to sum it up, we have been on a road trip across the US. Yes this does sound nuts and, yes, it was. But we did it! It all started with an interview in Iowa City the weekend before Christmas. Iowa City is a lovely town and we rather enjoyed it. We had joked weeks leading up to the interview that we should turn left and head West after the interview rather than the East back to Ohio. I had flashbacks about the drive out a week before we left to Iowa and decided I didn't want to go. The weather was a big factor as to what we would decide. We literally were deciding as we were getting on the freeway if we should do it. I said no and John-David said yes-I guess the driver won. We left in a snowy whirlwind that was only supposed to last for two hours. With every car I saw on the side of the road I announced that we should turn around but we didn't. To save you the boring details of our travels I will sum it up to this: there was a lot of wind, a lot of road, a lot of throwing up and we drove all night. We arrived at my parent's house at 9:00 in the morning. John-David and Kelsey went to sleep and I took the kids to church with my mom because they were awake and ready to go. The kids actually slept really well in the car.

That evening my parent's hosted the annual Meier Family Christmas party. 19 out of the 24 cousins were there, all 10 aunts and uncles and even Grandma and Grandpa were in attendance. It was so fun to see everyone. My cousin Jay even did a little presentation on his medical trip to Zimbabwe fixing cleft pallets. It was pretty cool. It was so fun seeing all my cousins and their families. I think it is so awesome that my family is still doing this party after all these years.

The next two days were spent preparing for all the festivities on Christmas eve and Christmas, recuperating from our travels and a trip down to Temple Square for the lights. Two of my sister's joined us with their girls. We decided to take Trax, which the kids just loved. It was fun to see the kids get excited about the lights. It was pretty cold so we didn't stay too long but traveling by Trax allowed us to see all the changes that are taking place in Salt Lake City.
As many of you know, Jackson's birthday is on Christmas Eve. We had originally planned to have a fireman birthday party for him when we returned but we thought that since we were there, we would celebrate it with family. I called the local Murray department to set up a station tour. They were more than accommodating to do this on two days notice and Christmas Eve nonetheless. To put it mildly, it was amazing!! I was promised a 15 minute tour which ended up being an hour long one. I'll let the pictures in the slide show tell the story. It was a birthday to remember!!!!

Later that evening we had Christmas Eve with John-David's family where we celebrated with food from Great Brittan. We even had beef wellington which I never had before. After dinner we had the Black tradition reenactment of the 1st Christmas. That always makes for an interesting production. This year there was no short supply of animals which seemed to be the popular part to play. After all the Black festivities we herded our animals home to get ready for Santa Claus. Our kids have yet to get up earlier than usual for Christmas morning. I think this may be that last year. I'll let the pictures again tell that story.

THe rest of the story is to be continued. Stay tuned for the other half.