Nat'l Lampoon's Christmas Vacation...except not as funny.

Turns out Santa is a rather accommodating guy and he brought Christmas to us a wee bit early so we could travel west to visit the fam. The kids made quite the haul and then we busied ourselves finishing up holiday treats for neighbors, and packing up the essentials for a week away. E shuffled next door with the fish bowl, because, well, we didn't want the fish to starve. It is Christmas after all. Besides Christmas loot, Santa brought us a snow storm so we did all this in a blizzard, wondering if we'd even get out of town at all. We woke up the next morning and braved the just opened highway out of town. Pack three kids and a greyhound in a van for a two-day drive, complete with a stay in a Motel 6 (because accommodation options accepting of the aforementioned dog are limited), and you've got a sure recipe for adventure. So here's how you do it:

--First, pack light. Because when you're staying at Motel 6 (in Laramie, Wyoming for Pete's sake!) you'll be lugging every last thing into the building with you so you won't lay awake wondering if someone's slim-jimming their way into your vehicle to steal the Christmas presents.

--Next, you must, MUST have a DVD player if you plan to travel with kids. A dozen movies or so (and make sure a couple of those are new, never before seen) and you'll have no problem keeping the kids in a movie-induced catatonic state in the back seat for 16 of the 17 hour drive.

--SNACKS. Snacks, snacks and more snacks. And bottles of water. And then more snacks.

--If one of two of you turn out to have a stomach virus, you can snatch all the tissues out of a Kleenex box and toss your cookies in there. Wrap that box up in a grocery bag and you're on your way once again. Later, after you've stolen the ice bucket from Motel 6, you can catch spews in there.

Quote of the week:

Somewhere in the middle of Nebraska Wonderboy asked "Is this the kind of place we call THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE?" Yes, my boy. Yes.

And then about midway across Wyoming the kids became convinced that one of the small towns along I-80 was surely Radiator Springs (think Cars movie).

So we arrived without major catastrophes, although with a tummy bug or two still in tow, and here we are having a lazy Christmas break, eating more than anyone should, and giving Grandpa and Grandma and good heavy dose of kid mess and kid chaos.