Minivan Christmas

Editor's Note: upon re-reading and finding many grammatical errors Okay, Em finds it necessary to admit that, having driven the last five hour leg of a twelve hour drive, she is a bit tired and will have funny syntax in this post.

SO: my parents and sister and dog all drove 12 hours on Thursday, northward, to come have Christmas with me in my little apartment in Portland. They wrapped all the presents, threw them into a laundry basket and came up to see me. The plan was that we would spend Christmas Day opening gifts at my apartment and hanging out, doing our traditional breakfast, ect and then all drive home together on Monday, the 26th, after spending a nice Portland Christmas together.
What happened was that on Friday, while my family was at Artists Rep seeing my show, the minivan was parked outside the theater on SW 16th and Alder and someone smashed the passenger window with a bat, unlocked the van, and stole all of the Christmas gifts from the backseat.
This event effectively killed my family's holiday spirit.
What we did instead was have a nice little blended family ChristmasEveHannukah event with Mona and Gabe last night and then woke up this morning and hit the road. That is how we came to have our first ever Minivan Christmas.
Amusement was had by all (except maybe Chrissy who was nestled in the backseat with a look that clearly said "Are we there yet?") and I have included a little photo essay of our day. Since I'm really tired and have little capacity for words.

Sisters in the backseat! 

 mmmmmmm truck stop

 Adding more M&Ms to trail mix... you know you've always wanted to....

Chrissy in her backseat nest. Tessie tried to teach her the 

command "nest" so that she would not crawl into our laps...

We watched LOTR III for most of the ride and were, unfortunately, 

at the part when Denethor is screaming to all of Minas Tirith that they will all die 

when we stopped for gas/directions/lunch. This is unfortunate because everytime

 the car is turned on, the DVD immediately begins which means there is some gas station 

in Ashland going to bed tonight wondering why there was a screaming man in the trunk 

of that silver minivan that passed through today...

 We stop for lunch

 Mona doesn't like to have her picture taken

 ...but I keep taking pictures anyway....

 ... and this impromptu photoshoot makes my father mutter "So gay..."

 under breath as he put on his jacket to leave and when we ask "What?"  

he just vaguely waved in our direction and said "This."

Car outside the restaurant

Goodbye for now, Oregon

Chrissy stepped in the yogurt cup

 Oee driving, Daddy DJing

 Home again: kitties on my bed!