A Christmas Miracle!

Forgive me for being late, I've been working on this post for a week, but I figured it would be worth it!

So, if you haven't heard, the Applegate Christmas Miracle took place between December 21 and Jan 1.  Who knew we could bring joy to pretty much everyone in our families??

It started out with a drive to Canyon, TX to visit Bruce's brother Ben and his family.  They just recently moved there and we figured it would be a good stopping point on our journey.  This leg of the trip was only supposed to take 11 hours, max.  Well, I-40 was closed due to a snow storm, so we had to find a different route.  Thank goodness we knew this before we left!  We ended up driving south through Tucson, over through Las Cruces, and then up into Canyon.  Total trip length:  14 hours.  The kids were pretty good as we drove the majority of it at night, and by "we" I mean Bruce.  haha.  Once we got there, we slept of course and had a great time hanging out with Mullen and Logan, even if it was only for a day!  That night we went to a restaurant that had a food challenge.  Bruce decided to do it. It was a 24 oz Country fried steak, 1 lb of fries, 1 lb of gravy, 1 lb of green beans, 1 roll, and 1 salad. I thought he could, but he just couldn't quite get everything down. 

We also celebrated Christmas with them.  It was nice to get to exchange gifts in person, rather than mail them!

After leaving Texas, we made our way up to Topeka, KS.  Bruce has an aunt and 4 cousins (plus their families) that live there.  We were able to swing in and have dinner with them and hang our for a couple of hours.  We hadn't seen them since our wedding, they are a fun group, especially since we are all fairly close in age.  They really enjoyed meeting the kiddos and Dominik had fun playing with his cousin Harper who is just 2 weeks older than him.

After leaving Topeka, we headed north to Plattsmouth where my parents were anxiously waiting.  Well, kind of.  They were both asleep.  haha.  Friday morning we hung out with my mom and sister.  Friday afternoon we headed to my friend Laura's house for the "6-pack" gift exchange.  This is the first time we had ALL been together in a while and it was nice to hang out and crazy to think that we have been friends since 1st grade.  Dominik had fun trying to get Rylee's shoes on.  Rylee is Laura's daughter.

 Saturday was Christmas Eve and full blown Lucas festivities.  Mom and I went for a run that morning in the freezing cold.  We spent the rest of the day preparing Christmas eve dinner.  Dominik spent the afternoon hanging out with Grandpa on his tractor!

We also attended Christmas eve mass in Plattsmouth and it was fun to see some familiar faces.  After church, we got home and got ready for the Lucas Ugly Sweater Party.  This was the 2nd year we've done it, but the first time we participated.  It was pretty funny to see everyone's sweaters!  We voted and Uncle Mark was the winner!

                        

Christmas day was full of toys and food and relaxing.  Dominik and Brooklyn are definitely spoiled!

The day after Christmas brought friends and extended family to my parent's house to see us all and meet Brooklyn!  It was fun chatting with everyone and I was glad that they were all able to come out, especially since most of the times we are back in Nebraska we only get to see a few people!

Tuesday the 27th we relaxed and then ended the evening at The Crescent Moon.  It is my uncle's bar and I used to work there, and my sister currently does.  You should check it out if you haven't been!  Anyways, my brother and cousin met us there for dinner.  One of Bruce's college friends also came out to have a few drinks.

Wedneday the 28th was MY BIRTHDAY!!  I didn't do a whole lot but sit in a car all day.  We left Omaha but decided to veer off our original plan of driving straight to Arizona.  Bruce had the rest of the week off so we decided to drive up to Cody to visit his parents!  So we embarked on our 13 hour trip to Wyoming.  We totally surprised his parents by showing up on their doorstep at 8:30 that night. 

 We didn't do a whole lot in Cody, just hung out with his family and wandered around downtown.  Dominik and Brooklyn did get to hang out with their cousin Gabriel.  Gabe is only 3 days younger than Dominik so it's always a good time when you get the two of them together.  Dominik also got to play in the snow for the first time.  We woke up to 5 inches on Saturday morning.  What a surprise!  That was the only snow we really saw the whole trip!

Sunday was New Year's day and we left Cody at 3:57 am.  We arrived back in Goodyear at 8:30 pm.  Quite a long day of driving, but the weather was good, and the kids were good, so we didn't go too crazy!