The J6 Journey: Year 5, December 26th-27th, 2020: A Traveling Christmas

**I will do my best to put photos under the correct entries. Videos will be in playlist format, hopefully by day or blog post depending on how many there are. Some days I got carried away and some days I didn't.**

J12 Christmas Vacation, Dec 26, 2020

J12 Christmas Vacation, Dec 27, 2020

Saturday, December 26^th

Well, vacation started off well. The roads were clear and dry and cold, but not freezing. We took a few detours on our way down, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Jared and Abishai went to Tractor Supply Store super early to get some tie downs, a tarp, and a pin to put an extra trailer thing on the back of the van. Abishai was treated to a Chick Fil A breakfast! And he conversed with Jared about seeing family today. He wasn't too sure of seeing Aaron, or even Shauna. I woke up around 8, and got things going around 8:30. Keturah was up early, too, because I said, whoever is ready when grandparents are ready, may ride with them. Keturah and Justin ended up riding with the Grandparents and Benaiah and Abishai came with us. We left about 45 minutes or so after they did, but ended up getting to the cabin about 1 ½hrs after them. We did take a couple of extra roads and ended up stopping at McDonald's for food. I had a wicked bad headache from not drinking enough water. I don't drink as much on travel days so we don't have to stop as often. Bad idea. When we got to the cabin, I did end up drinking 3-4 huge glasses of water, so it all evened out. I tried to take a couple of naps in the car, especially after having travel medication, but it was hard. Abishai also tried to nap, but he didn't nap for long. I did work on my crossittitch a bit though. I need to make that a priority this week because it's nearly finished! We have plenty of time here with little to no data/wifi and no specific plans to be anywhere.

Benaiah definitely slept in the car because we heard him snoring! He helped out a lot with Abishai, handing him snacks, and fixing his tablet for him. I guess the icons won't download for the games on the tablet, but the games are there when we aren't in wifi. I was also going to tether him to my phone as a hotspot if necessary. I supposed I could that with my computer IF it had bluetooth, which it does not. Soon after McDonald's though, near Evansville, we all lost the “bar” and data on our phones! We couldn't even use the phone to text or make phone calls. Yesterday, in Nashville, TN, there was an RV that was outfitted with a bomb that blew up, in the HEART of downtown. And it was across from an AT&T building or tower or something and knocked out everybody's cell phone lines for a good part of the southeast United States! They had to shut down Nashville entirely because even the police couldn't communicate. So, they must have been still working on getting it up and running today. Well, we weren't expecting that and weren't prepared for that. It's a good thing Jared had the regular GPS and we had already plugged the address of the cabin into it! But for 6 hrs, we had no communication with family or the world. It felt so strange! And a good reminder of how our world communicates these days. I couldn't look up information about Johns James Audubon when we passed a sign for it. Or how big Fort Campbell is or at least the preservation that belongs to the US Army that we saw in KY/TN. How are we supposed to look up grocery stores or local attractions? Pretty hard to do without this little device! Thankfully, the main office does have a wifi connection we can get to in the parking lot for emergency purposes. Apparently Ava and Benaiah have 380 day streak of sending messages back and forth, so that was his main concern about being without wifi of course.

It was a pleasant ride down. I just wish we hadn't gotten to the cabin in the dark. I can't wait to go outside! The J4 arrived shortly after we did. We got everything put away fairly quickly, menus finalized, grocery order ready to be picked up in the morning. I'm trying to avoid as much as that as possible. We had a picnic dinner of leftovers of ham and turkey sandwiches. Shauna brought my favorite kind of gluten free bread, too! Super yummy! After diner, most of everyone play a new game or twist on charades and it was hilarious! Most of the characters were about Jesus, or Bible characters, or Abishai or previous vacation homes. It was awesome!

But poor Abishai couldn't fall asleep with all that noise! He doesn't want to sleep on the floor in our room because he thinks we will snore. Jared had to stay with him and he was livid. Jared also gave him a melatonin. I hope the little guy stays in bed for a long while. Benaiah and Justin are in the same room with Grandpa and Grandma as normal. Keturah wanted to sleeep on the couch in the living room. I'm sure she'll be woken up earlier than normal, but that's fine. She said she already misses Socks.

Oh, Miss Kaylee came this morning and I showed her all the things about Socks. She'll be great with him for sure! Socks was already cuddling up to her as well.

And now Shauna and I had a nice long chat about anything and everything. Ah, that felt really nice to have. There was so much chaos and happiness and laughter and running around, but just having some of that quiet time is great, too.

Tomorrow is Chrismast part 2! So far so good. I almost had a meltdown as we arrived because of my headache and I was thirsty, but managed to power through it. I just keep praying I don't have an explosion this time. I can go to my room and have a break any time. I can stay out of certain conversations about food and dinner prep. I can take less photos and videos and just sit for long periods of time. It was a great first day of vacation so far! Woot! Woot! Now onto a quick TV show before bed, although it's already midnight our time. We are an hour behind here in Paris Landing, TN. One TV show that I picked up from the library because I knew we wouldn't have wifi here. Here goes!

(These pics are backwards chronologically.)

The first of many common themes this week. Sitting together, electronics in hand.

Watching the others play a game like charades.

'Nuff said.

Eat something?

Big? They picked words like Nova Scotia and Mansion House.

Even Benaiah got into all the games.

Bedtime for little guy was going to be hard for the first couple of nights because everyone else was still up and he had some serious FOMO, fear of missing out! He was so irate that he sat up with clenched fists having a stare down with Daddy.

Most of them participated. Jared and I prefer not to play games. But they had a great time all week doing them!

Cousins? You betcha! Everly is now taller than me. She will be 14 in March.

Let the games begin!

And all the crafting! Benaiah likes this dot art thing. Grandpa Howell would be impressed and pleased because he liked to do art stuff as well like tri chem and woodworking. Working with our hands is a great hobby.

Abishai with his new best friend he's going to marry.

Night night time.

Aaron and Shauna brought this, but Abishai didn't like it and didn't use it. Kind of nice to have a single easy to blow mattress for guests.

No pump means Daddy's lungs get a workout.

Phones and cubes!

Lots of brotherly love and wrestling.

We are a family that loves games, especially card games and some of us like video games.

8 out of 12 people so far!

Gotta love that wide angle lens! It comes in handy in tight spaces! The kitchen and dining room for the weekend. There was barely a time that the table wasn't being used.

I guess I got my whole to do list done on travel day.

Living room. Lots of echoing, which wasn't helpful for Abishai's sleeping, but lots of room to play. We loved the windows looking out on the lake.

Christmas Round 2. I love the little tree that the J4 brought.

Aaron's gift "cured" just in time.

First cousin hugs!

Some nights we had a nice clear view of the moon. Ah. Bliss. This is with the night mode off.

This is with the night mode on.

Sunset. We did lose our phone signals because the AT&T tower went down after the Nashville, TN downtown bombing happened on Christmas. We had plenty of phone signal a couple of days later.

Somewhere is Jupiter and Saturn that was the Bethlehem star this year.

Literally miles and miles of fence line, barbed wire and all, protecting the army's land.

We were right inside the Kentucky border. After we got into TN, we would go directly west to our destination.

Fort Campbell! A REAL ACTIVE BASE! It's HUGE! I've never seen military housing before. Duplexes and condos and little bungalows that I've read about or heard about from friends. But this is a BIG active base! Woot! Woot! Lots of brick walls and security gates.

We lost our phone signals before we could get this message sent. We couldn't call them either. It was weird being "in the dark" and not being able to tell them when we would arrive.

Sunset over Kentucky blue grass.

Bwahahahaha!

Where we went!

McDonald's lunch break. No one had in store dining, so in car dining it is!

Cutie in his red striped pajamas he refused to change out of. We only stopped a couple of times. It was fine.

It's nice when we have our locations on on our phones and we can track each other. Aaron and Shauna had longer to go than we did.

Abishai tried to sleep but couldn't. He really did try to use his mask in the van, at home, and at the cabin. I didn't think he would. He wanted it for Christmas because of a YouTube video but I thought he would just play with it.

Big Brother Benaiah helping Dad with the luggage rack. First time we've had a vehicle that a hitch on it. It did help keep the back windshield clear as we drove. We didn't end up using it on the way back. We borrowed it from a friend. We did take out the back bench seat in the van as well.

He's got all that he needs for vacation. Drawing, video games, peppermints, and pjs!

Ready to go and bored.

Also ready to go and bored.

Keturah's Emoticon is so cute! She LOVES using it!

Final coating to Aaron's gift went on hours before we left. Sigh. Always last minute with Jared, always.

Spoiler: Abishai wasn't afraid to hug Uncle Aaron when vacation was over. He and Daddy had gone out to CFA before/after the working store right before we left.

I think this is the first time I've heard Keturah ask for prayer like this. It's a great sign she's been listening and maturing and hopefully thinking about God and a relationship with Him more.

One super sleepy guy from a full day of Christmas. He did wear his Pikachu' eye mask to bed. So why do we need these lights on? I don't know. Justin like the red over the other colors, so he changes it when he goes to bed.

Sunday, December 27th

Last night was rough! Because of the time change, little man went to bed very angry because he was wicked tired and beyond anything. He sat up for 5 minutes with clenched fists at Jared extremely irate. Then he got up at 5:15, 6:15 and for the final time, 7:15 when I told him he could go out to the big room. I fell asleep for a bit longer and woke up with the worst dream headache ever. I dreamed that Jared had invited a couple over that I'm not fond of, they ate from our fridge, and questioned a bunch of things. I also dreamed that a skid steer with a cable TV company, was doing things right outside the wall of the house and then drove over our flower garden and sidewalk and crunched up the cement and other rocks and ruined the neighbor's driveway (the house and it's location was a combination of our house now and our Beech Grove house). Thankfully, Jared was very tender and helped calm me down and put me in a better mood by massaging my head and my back. Missing that chiropractic appointment was necessary, but made this trip more difficult. I was also still short on water from the day before. I've made to guzzle as much water as I could manage today, which means lots of bathroom trips.

Everyone was up and breakfast got underway about 8:30. Justin and Aaron handle the pancakes and Justin even served the girls because they there in the middle of an escape room game that was based on the Biblical story of Christmas that Shauna had brought and helped them with. After breakfast, we did a little worship service where everyone contributed something, a Scripture, a thought, a prayer, or a song. Everly, Nora, and Justin recited parts from Matthew 5-7. Abishai opened us in prayer and Keturah closed us. Aaron and Shauna both contributed a song. Benaiah did communion. Gary, Leah, Jared, and I all contributed Scriptures and thoughts. I did Psalm 112:1-2 which was a verse about blessed generations. Gary's was around the same theme and he teared up quite a bit. He said he's been memorizing a passage of Scripture from each book of the Bible and his verse of the year, if he had an official one, was a similar one about generations. And he's always been about pouring in to the younger generations. Always. It was a sweet time. Abishai refused to sit still of course. Keturah said a great ending prayer. Benaiah, did great with the communion piece. Then we went for a short walk up and down the little road behind the cabin.

Then once everyone was settled again, we started in on gifts. Justin was Santa and we started with the gifts Benaiah gave the others. Then Justin drew names out of a hat, gave the gift, and then set that name aside for the next round. It was all pretty fair. Everyone waited for the previous person to even fully open their gift, too. Lots of things that were on our lists were now in our hands. There were a few surprises as well. I think I got a few photos. Lots of videos. Keturah got her doll jeep and horse trailer, but somehow in transport, the trailer had broken, so it will be exchanged. All my kids got Legos, even Abishai. Benaiah got air pods (and so did Jared!) and a computer monitor. Jared got a wood splitter device and a real chainsaw. Aaron got boots and work lights. Us girls got puzzles and books. I got a larger charging bank. Oh Abishai got bed sheets, headphones, a hooded towel and more Overwatch cars! (Whoops, I thought I had taken those off of the list). Not always the exact ones he wanted but he was already so tired that it didn't matter. His favorite gift was Baby Yoda that Aaron and Shauna got him. He carried Grogu around the house and kept feeding it like it was a baby doll. I got to “babysit” it a few times! So adorable! It does have a soundbox and whimpers and coos, too. Perfect! Not too fancy, but just enough. And finally, my biggest unexpected gift was a new laptop! It still had a disk drive, two hard drives, 1 TB of data space, not a touch screen, but a bigger case and screen than my current one! It's huge! I did open it up today to get started but there's not much I can do without internet. It did NOT come loaded with things like even a way to play DVD's! I need to download an app or something. Which is quite silly, really, no wonder it was $200 off. It probably didn't cost more than $300, which is still a lot, but, yes, I'll have to wait until we got home to fully set it up. It shouldn't be difficult because everything is on my hard drive and is backed up weekly. Or on an SD card. There's a few things like iTunes and a few photos and/documents on a different drive that I need to make sure gets backed up and easy to find on the external drive. The programs and apps I have are easy enough to find. Oh shoot. I wonder if there's a way to remember all the passwords and transfer it over! I'll have to look into that, because I have no idea what all my passwords are. Hm, this is a slightly bigger project than I thought. But all in all, because I keep everything organized and backed up, it won't be much more than changing out my phone. I'm not sure what we will do with this laptop, but it's still in ok condition. Maybe used it for school or Keturah can permanently keep it or it can travel around the house more? And now two kids can watch DVD's or type up something. It's great to have options!

After gifts, we had a snackish lunch and cleaned up. Then we started doing different things. Some went for walks this afternoon. Some played card and board games. Some started on video games. Some started a puzzle. I just wandered for the most part and did a 2^nd round of email. I'm getting just enough bars to get through it here and there and I don't feel as lost as I was yesterday. I just need to be careful because although we have unlimited data, if we get to a certain back, the speed drastically decreases. Some apps aren't working at all. But we are all managing. There's been no meltdowns or angst, praise the Lord. It helps that I am personally staying out of things or walking away. It's a good way to get some practice socializing again. Because we all know I need the practice!

A few other things from this morning before I go on to the afternoon/evening. Aaron and Gary went and got the groceries at 7 am. We got 60 eggs! Eek! When Abishai has been having trouble with his tablet, he'll ask Benaiah for help and Benaiah willingly helps him. There's been lots of great interactions between all the cousins. Well, not so much Benaiah and the girl cousins. But Abishai has been all over Everly and Nora giving out lots of hugs and wrestles. He even said he wants to marry Everly! Benaiah got up “early” and showered! Nora and Keturah went to see the lake for a few minutes (which is right below the back deck so we have a great view).

In the late afternoon, we had linner of turkey and some of the fixin's That was Gary and Leah's big contribution to the food. I'm not sure when our night is, but I plan on having our kids heavily participate so I don't have to do much, and that includes washing dishes. Nora helped Gary wash dishes tonight and it was so cute! After dinner was other walks and playtime. And I suspect the rest of the week will look like that. I don't know when or where we will go out. Some said maybe going to Dollar General tomorrow. There's some great history places here relating to President Andrew Jackson, so we might explore that. I don't know if we will make it to the national park. I haven't touched my reading or crossstitch today, but that's because gifts and dinner took awhile. Tomorrow will be different. I have to check to see if I can do my video appointment from this location. And I think I have another phone call to make. I'm all messed up on time because we went from the tail west end of one time zone to the far east of another time zone. 6Pm felt like 8pm. Oh well.

Well, tomorrow is a new day. Let's hope we get some better sleep tonight. Now that I'm done the big part of the blog, perhaps I can watch some of those history DVD's as well as my TV show. And work on that cross stitch. And/or read. We'll see.

One last thing....don't miss one of the last photos on this portion of the blog. Jared is playing Monopoly! He hates board games that rely on chance, aka dice. And I keep going to hug him thinking he's his old size and then my hug is too big! I'm not used to it at all. It's like I'm missing a part of my guy! It's weird. Still not sure I like it.

It's been a great day. No blow ups. No angry moments from me. I'm grateful that this vacation came right after my monthly cycle when my mood is at it's highest/best/happiest/most controlled. That really plays a huge part in all of this. That's about it! I'm sure there will be some people turning in early. That's a great thing!

And now I just spent 2 hrs on the floor, again, with Shauna helping her with her mystery puzzle talking about all kinds of things. Wow, I didn't expect to have such awesome conversations but we've been in this family for 20 years so we have a ton in common obviously. It's incredible to be able to talk face to face. It reminds me that I really need to make space for these kinds of visits. I love how people in other eras would “come a calling” on someone, sometimes to discuss a certain matter, and sometimes, just to visit for 30-60 minutes and have a cup of tea. Sometimes it was planned, but a lot of times it wasn't. That's the only way communication happened way back when and how gossip spread and news and all that. We need to get back to that, and by we, I mean me. I'm sure those visits happen sometimes in the real world that I don't live in. So, something to think about when we get back into our routine after New Year's. Give it a couple of weeks and I'll think of something. Now I'm off to watch my show for a bit.

iPhone pics, then DSLR

Shauna ordered 60 eggs! They came in this huge box! We used every single one of them, too!

Typical morning scene.

I'll title this: "The Pastor" or "The Patriarch"

Hello, Sunshine!

First breakfast was pancakes made by Aaron and Justin! Way to go!

Lots of love tackles!

Big boys' turn.

Pinned.

Abishai was somewhat babied by the girls. He just LOVES them!

Grandpa wanted us to take a family hike after we did our little church service thing and before opening gifts. It was the only hike I ended up doing because it got colder and I didn't want to hike without Jared, who became very ill a couple of days later.

This is a good hiking stick, Grandma says.

Cool, dude! Those pjs, that camo knitted hoodie, and those sunglasses!

See rocks, will climb.

Except we weren't supposed to. Actually, this sign was probably down near the water with these cement block things.

Kentucky Lake or whatever lake Paris Landing State Park is on.

Those heeled boots are tough to walk in! Bare feet is best!

The back of our cabin.

Opening gifts....I wonder if it's my socks or my slippers!

A mold to make pigs in a blanket!

Gift card for video game points!

Awesome sign that Aaron made that has Ephesians 6:10-18 about putting on the armor of God on the back of it. Be a Danger to Satan.

He was very tired, but also very content that he got Lego comforter and sheets instead of Star Wars and a Paw Patrol hoodie towel instead of a dinosaur.

Super expensive hoodie of his favorite character from Overwatch. It looks rad though!

This is a big one! Could it be? The horse trailer? She had already opened the jeep. I'm guessing the big reveal is on the DSLR camera.

All four of my kids got Legos of course.

Lego sheets! And he got a 3 in 1 Lego dinosaur set.

I got to hold Abishai's Grogu/Baby Yoda like I was the Grandma or something. Abishai insists that he is the Daddy. He walked around with it the rest of the week constantly feeding it and taking care of it. I want to get the baby backpack out from the shed from him. It does make some cute whimpering and crying sounds. Aaron and Shauna got it for him.

Grandpa thought Daddy would like a new mug for the office. And since this is Daddy's phone background, and favorite baby photo of Abishai, he made it into a mug!

Lego! She said she would save it for New Year's Eve to put it together, and she did! Now THAT'S self control! The boys all made theirs the same day.

Benaiah got a new TV/monitor for his computer system set up.

Grogu took the American Girl (Next Generation brand) doll jeep for a spin!

Nertz! Or some other card game. Loads of sarcasm and laughter ensued during these games all week.

The girls aren't little anymore. They all have things to show each other on their phones. None of them have phone numbers, so none of them could access the internet this week, but they played and shared their games!

The Christmas aftermath. Oh, and we broke out the PS4. Actually, Jared did. I think he was already missing it. Need for Speed it is.

Now Grogu has other friends to ride along with.

Girls, with a bonus boy, on their electronics.

Lego building time.

The only photo of just the two of us all weekend.

All done.

Gotta start a puzzle! There was no where else to do it where it wouldn't be disturbed, but this little corner and Aaron's new flood light worked well. It wasn't really a hard puzzle because there were lots of different patterns and colors. But there was no photo because you were supposed to figure out what mystery happened on the Titanic or something by making the puzzle. Weird. But Shauna found it at her Mom's house. I helped her out a bit, too.

Everybody got enlisted at some point to help with dishes. No dishwasher here but our own two hands!

Grogu was tired after all that cruising, so he had a nap with all of Abishai's friends.

Minecraft time! They've been working on this map for a couple of years now!

More moon shots. I should have brought my tripod and gotten some on the DSLR as well. But it was fun to play with my new phone camera a bit.

Minecraft.

More games.

Lots of extra salt and sugar for everyone. Grandpa bought 4 kinds of ice cream!

Jared actually played a round of Monopoly with Aaron and our boys! That's a Christmas miracle considering he doesn't like Monopoly.

These two, thick as thieves over sugar and video games.

DSLR pics:

While they were waiting for others to get breakfast, Shauna and the girls did a Nativity Escape Room game. They did escape, but a little after the average time. I think they had fun.

Aaron and Justin, the pancake master, handled our first breakfast!

Just a few pictures of some of the gifts. I didn't feel like taking photos of everything. Keturah got her big bottle of ranch in her stocking!

Paw Patrol hooded towel for Abishai.

Chocolate and a mug that Gary and Leah bought from the place we had our wedding rehearsal dinner at! The Common Man in Concord, NH!

Aaron made these blocks to go in a tray that Leah has that she was using at the church. Someone took some of the blocks from the cabinet. Aaron's set didn't quite fit, so he took them home to refinish them.

Shoes or socks?

Favorite toy of the year! Grogu! Aka The Child aka Baby Yoda!

Big heavy gifts.

He spent the rest of the day constantly feeding Grogu. It didn't make any extra noises when he did that, but he was a good daddy for taking care of it. Abishai has not seen the Mandolorian but he likes this character because we do.