Christmas in Omaha

I'm going to work on this post as we go.

We celebrated Christmas in Omaha this year. And ... we drove there. We left Monday, the 20th after work and drove straight through, arriving in Omaha Tuesday afternoon. The trip went somewhat smoothly, although Ben had to do most of the driving. Mattie required Mama to be close. It was hard 23 hours), but not too bad. Tuesday we ordered pizza and hung out at Oma's house, where we stayed. All-in-all, it was a good start to the trip.

Wednesday we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch with Oma when she was off work and I fell in the parking lot on my way in - while I was holding Mattie. The baby was fine, but I sacrificed y left leg in the fall and ended up with a very painful, deep bruise. The whole thing traumatized me to a certain degree - falling with my baby, and I ended up with a good deal of pain for a while. Even so, it was a nice day with Oma. That night we went to a bar with all my siblings while Oma watched the girls. It was the first night we'd been out in a while, and it was a lot of fun. Jarrod had a bit too much, though, and was sick that night at home. It was a lot of fun, though, and we played darts and hung out.

Thursday we got a hitch installed on the van (so we could bring some furniture back to New York), and hung out with Oma. That night we headed to Lincoln to spend the night with Grandpa and spend Christmas Eve. We had a big dinner and played Euchre that night. Grandpa has cats, though, and Ben and I both had to deal with that. We made it through, though, and Christmas Eve was a long lazy day with a lot of food and presents. The girls had a blast, and Grandpa had some good quality time with them. Thursday night we left Grandpa's with the plan of going to Midnight Mass, but the girls had had it and we ended up skipping it. We played Santa for the first time, and filled up the tree. We also played games with everyone and had a great time.

Christmas morning, Celia woke up excited, although we think she was barely aware of why she was excited. We took her to the tree, and she had a lot of fun with presents. The problem was that she had a good many presents and every time she opened one she wanted to stop and play with the toys. This meant that presents took 2 hours. Oma made a big Christmas breakfast and we went to 12:30 mass at MOQ, where we were married. We saw Uncle John and his family there and really enjoyed mass. When we got back to Oma's, we exchanged Christmas presents with the siblings. The rest of Chirstmas was a lazy day. Oma served French dip subs and we ate and played games all day. It was great!

Sunday we packed up and went to the Fuchs family Christmas in Columbus. More later ...

Decorating the Christmas Tree

We decorated the Christmas tree today and brought out the rest of the decorations, including the advent wreath. The first time we lit the advent candles, Celia saw the flame and said, "Wow!" It's a lot of fun, and Auntie Allison helped us. Now it finally feels like Christmas is coming!

The passing of Grandma Swoboda

Grandma Swoboda died early in the morning on December 3. Margaret Jean Swoboda was Ben's paternal grandmother, and a very special woman. Mattie Jean was named for her. She lived a good life and a good death. A few days before she died she was able to receive the sacraments, including Communion, and she had her children with her at the end. The last time she received Communion, she spoke to the priest as if she was speaking to Jesus and said, "I love you." That story gives us great joy and a tremendous example to live up to. We found out Friday evening that she had passed, so Saturday morning we hopped on a plane with the girls (their first airplane ride) for Cape Girardeau and the funeral.

The trip itself went pretty well. We drove to Hartford, flew to St. Louis, then drove to Cape. Mattie slept the whole time and Celia was infinitely entertained by the planes. While grandma's passing was sad, it was also a wonderful opportunity for the family to gather and for the Missouri family to meet Mattie.

When we arrived at Nanaw and Pawpaw's house, Celia headed straight to where her toys used to be. She settled in there as if we had never left, and Nanaw and Pawpaw reveled in their time with the girls. We had time to sit around and talk about memories of Granma Swoboda and good times in Cairo. Ben shared the story of the last visit he had with Granma in her house before she went into the home while he was on leave from the navy. Everyone had fond memories of her and the sweet person she was.

Everyone was generous, bringing food, and we spent good time with the family. The visitation was Monday night, and we trekked over to Cairo, IL for the viewing and rosary from 4-7. Celia was so good through it all, even though her schedule was in ruin. Mattie slept in the Moby wrap and complained when strangers held her. The funeral was Tuesday morning, and Hannah, Elliott, and Becky sang a song graveside. Afterwards, the community served a lunch and the family spent some time together. Celia handled it all like a champ, although Mattie had a harder time of it. We're discovering that Mattie is a child that dislikes change and strange people more than Celia.

The flights home went very well, but the drive home was hard. The girls were tired and tired of traveling. We stopped for a meal on the drive home, and Celia threw up in the McDonalds before we ordered. She wasn't sick otherwise or after, so it must have just been a slight upset. She even ate quite a bit. We made it, though. Ben had to take a trip the next day and left at 3 am after we got back somewhat late. He was exhausted, as were we all, but we managed to make it through the long weekend and get back into a routine. It was a great trip and a great opportunity to remember a wonderful woman.

Rest in peace, Granma Jean