Christmas in Mexico!

Our Mexico Christmas went as follows:

Tuesday December the 17th we woke up and did some last minute packing and cleaning and then loaded the van and headed to Atlanta, Georgia.  The trip was pretty uneventful as far as road trips go.  We packed lunch and ate that on the way and then stopped at Chick-fil-a for dinner.  We let the girls play on the playground for a while because we stopped on the early side and the place was completely empty.  By the time we were leaving we realized we had been there an hour!  We arrived at the hotel around ten only to realize that they charged for parking unless you are going to be at the hotel for the extent of your stay.  I know that sounds dumb because who doesn't do that but our purpose in getting a hotel close to the airport is so that we can use the shuttle and then keep our van at the hotel for free parking.  That's what we did two years ago anyways but we were staying at a different hotel this time, whoops.  Oh well, we found a smart park place a mile away that was cheaper than the hotel so we decided on that and went to sleep.

WEDNESDAY morning we woke up, showered, got breakfast, and headed to the smart park place.  When we got there we found out that the lady on the phone had given us the price for domestic flights and it was a lot more expensive to park your car there if you were on an international flight.  What does it matter you ask?  That's what we asked and somehow apparently it does.  Anyways, we just drove the mile back to the hotel and decided to keep our van there, we figured it would be easier on the return home anyways.  David unloaded our stuff on the curb and we waited inside for a shuttle.  The shuttle service at that hotel was terrible, we waited forty-five minutes!!  I know they were supposed to have two shuttles running but there was only one guy and he was super eccentric and came in for a cup of coffee everytime he stopped at the hotel (thus the eccentricity?).  At one point I heard the hotel ladies asking eachother where the other shuttle guy was.  I felt like saying, "uh, yeah, someone needs to get on that!!"  Anyways, finally we were on our way to the airport, and our flight was living in about an hour.  When we got there David told the ticket lady our dilemma and she helped us cut in line so we could get our tickets right away.  The security line wasn't bad either so once we got through that we just had to find elevators to take a train to the right terminal and then find more elevators to get back up to the terminals and then find our gate and we made it!  We had the stroller so that's why we needed elevators.  Anyways, when we got to our gate we got our little ticket things for our stroller and then got in line to board because they were almost done boarding.  The girls were still in pajamas since I had been planning on having lots of extra time at the gate to change them.  Anyways, I just changed them on the plane instead.  I had them in winter pajamas and I changed them into summer clothes because we were flying to Cancun, Mexico and it was hot there.  Anyways, the flight there was pretty uneventful.  Neither of the girls slept but they were pretty preoccupied with drinking juice and eating pretzels.  Towards the end they started to get wild so we turned on the Ipad for them and they watched that.  When we got to Mexico we took a shuttle to the rental car place where we waited for a little bit for them to finish getting our car ready and then we were off!  Actually, we didn't leave for Campeche right away because it was lunchtime and we were super hungry.  Instead we found a fish taco place next to a gas station so we ate there first.  Apparently Emily loves fish because she ate tons.  Haley contented herself with nibbling on a tortilla and then we got a Magnum popsicle at the gas station next door and she ate most of that.  Then we got in the car and drove the four hours to Campeche.  Emily slept almost the entire way, it was pretty impressive.  We had to stop along the road twice for Haley to use the bathroom, she was missing her little potty.  We drove into Campeche at about 5:30 and went straight to David's grandparent's house where David's mom and Sarah were waiting for us.  David's grandma had a delicious dinner waiting for us and we ate and then headed to the house where we were staying.  One of David's aunts and uncles has a house a few blocks from his grandparents and they use it as kind of a vacation house, anyways, they were letting us all stay there.  Haley and Emily played with their cousins who had been at the house and then we settled into our room and went to bed.

THURSDAY we got up and went to a local bakery to get pastries and donuts for breakfast.  Then we showered and went to downtown Campeche for the day.  David was kind of dehydrated and not feeling well so we didn't do too much.  We ate at a restaurant and then he went to the bank to change money while the girls and I were at the park with the Higgins.  It took David over two hours to change money but there were a lot of pigeons at the park so that kept the girls busy.  After the park we went back to the house and ate something for dinner, I don't remember.  Then David and I went with the girls to David's grandma's house and gave them their Christmas gift and hunt out with some of his aunts and uncles who were there.  On the way home we went by Wal-mart (yes they have them there too) to pick up some donuts for the next morning's breakfast.

Here we are at the restaurant downtown.  Haley's hat was her souvenir.  

Emy and Abuelita

FRIDAY we got up and had our donuts for breakfast.  It was my Birthday but I honestly can't remember what we did!  I think we may have gone to a park with the kids but I'm not completely sure.  I know in the evening David pick up some tacos al pastor (my favorite kind of tacos) and we went to his grandparent's house and at them with a bunch of his family.  Then we probably went to Wal-mart for donuts for the next day (we did that almost every night).

Haley and her cousins on the swings at the park

They weigh about the same so this worked out pretty nice

SATURDAY we gave the girls bucket baths since it was pretty warm.  They had big five gallon buckets so we filled them with water and just put them in there.  It's a good thing they are small because they both fit without any problems, we did have to do one at a time though.  We did Emily first so Haley could watch and see how fun it was.  After baths we got dressed and then headed downtown to check out a new mall that has gone up since the last time we were there.  It was pretty nice, nicer than a lot of malls I've seen in the states.  We ate at the food court there, Haley and Emy had Burger King!  Haley was acting kind of under the weather so we didn't stay long so we could take her back for a nap.  Her only symptoms were tiredness and lack of appetite.  She is a pretty easy sick kid because she just asks to take naps and then takes naps and sleeps a lot.  We went back and she and Emy took nice long naps.  I think we had leftovers for dinner.

Emy didn't want to get out.  That's our rental car there behind Dave

We let them keep their pacis because we thought that would help them not accidentally drink the water

SUNDAY Haley was seeming to feel much better.  We got up a little earlier so that we could get to church on time.  Haley and Emy stayed with us during the worship service and Sunday school time and they both did pretty well.  We should give a shout out to the Ipad though because we couldn't have done it without!  After church we went by a restaurant and bought some tortillas and some rotisserie chickens.  Then we went back to the house and David's grandparents and Aunt and her family came and had lunch with us.  The line was kind of long at the chicken place but it was well worth the wait.  I gave the girls a quick yogurt snack and then put them down for naps right when we got home but I saved some chicken and some spaghetti stuff for them when they woke up.  Emily ate all of the spaghetti stuff when she woke up, she loved it.  In the evening the church was throwing a Christmas block party ministry event so we went to that.  It started out with some skits and a video and ended with pinatas.  Haley was not up for hitting the pinata but she did grab some candy once it was opened.  Afterwards we went downtown with one of David's Aunts and Uncles and their kids and had some dinner at a taco place.

Haley at the block party

Pinata!

MONDAY morning I woke up not feeling so great.  We had a busy day planned so David got up and drove his family to his Aunt's house while I stayed back with the girls.  I ended up throwing up while he was gone which made me feel a lot better so I took a shower and got ready for the day.  I guess I did too much because then I started to feel a little sick again.  For lunch his parents were treating the family at a nice restaurant along the river in the downtown area.  I thought I felt up for it so when David came back we got the girls ready and loaded up in the car and went.  I didn't eat very much, just drank a bit.  Haley and Emy were not very good during the lunch but there was a pathway right outside the restaurant next to the water so we took turns taking them outside.  Abuelita took them out a lot which was nice of her because I was not feeling well!  On the way home we actually had to pull over so I could throw up all of the liquid I had drank.  I didn't think I had drunk that much but I guess I did!  I felt a little better after that but still went back and spent the afternoon in bed.  In the evening one of David's Aunts and Uncles and their kids came to the house and brought us homemade pizza!  I wasn't feeling quite well enough to eat too much but Emily probably ate enough for the both of us.

TUESDAY was out last day in Campeche and Christmas Eve!  We got ready for the day and then went downtown for shopping and lunch.  I bought the last of my souvenirs and then we actually ended up eating at the mall that we had gone to on Saturday.  I was kind of wary of Mexican food after Monday so I spent my last big Mexican meal eating mall Chinese food, haha!  I know that sounds sick but it tastes just like mall Chinese food in the states and I really do like that stuff.  After lunch we came home and took naps before the Christmas Eve service at church.  We put the girls down late and let them sleep super long because we knew it was going to be a late night.  First we had the church service which went well thanks to the Ipad.  We always sat in the back row for those of you who are picturing how rude we must have looked.  Then we went to David's Grandma's house where we shared a meal together and spent time with a lot of his relatives.  We stayed as long as we could and then Emily started to get visibly, and audibly, tired so we went back to the house and went to sleep.

We slept about three or four hours and then we had to get up to start our long day of traveling back to the states.  It was an early morning but nothing helps you feel awake more than a cold shower.  We left the girls in their pajamas and transferred them to their car seats where they slept most of the way to Cancun.  We had to stop for Haley to use the bathroom once.  The drive went relatively well except we almost ran out of gas at the end and David took a wrong turn and we had to turn around and drive fifteen miles until we got to a u-turn place so it got a little hairy at the end but we made it in plenty of time for our flight and enough time to grab some burgers and shakes at Johnny Rockets for lunch.  It was good we had such a big lunch because that ended up being our big meal of the day.  Emily did not sleep at all on the airplane which was pretty awful, especially for the people around me when they didn't have any milk on the plane.  Every plane should carry milk, that should be a FAA law or something.  We got off the plane, went through customs and then went outside to get our shuttle to the hotel to get our van.  As it turns out, we were at the international terminal so we had to get a shuttle to the domestic terminal and then wait for a shuttle there to take us to the hotel.  We were the only people on that shuttle and the guy was super nice and...we didn't have any cash to tip him, kind of embarrassing.  Merry Christmas fella, except we are Jews.  Haha, just kidding.  When we got to our van it was 4pm on Christmas day and I was so ready to drive to a bed somewhere!  I took the first shift because I told David I was too annoyed to sleep, haha.  I really didn't have a great reason to be annoyed except that it was 4pm and Emily had still not taken a nap.  Well, take a nap she did as soon as we were a couple miles down the road.  She and Haley both slept for the first couple hours of my shift.  I drove a solid five hours before we decided to stop for dinner.  And, in case you didn't know this, nothing is open on Christmas day.  Yes, I feel like we should have realized that but for some reason the thought did not cross our minds until we were calling fast food restaurants along our route and no one is answering.  Fortunately there was a nice little seven eleven gas station that was selling lunchables, chips, breakfast sandwiches (that's what Dave had, gross!) and Snickers bars (that's what I had for dinner).  We got back in the van with our gas station dinner and David pipes up from the front, "Merry Christmas everyone!"  Haley and Emily really did think it was Christmas because I just let them sit in the back with me to eat dinner.  Then I put them in their pajamas and took a nap while David drove the first three hours of his shift.  I was planning on driving the last three hours of the trip so that David could sleep but he had drunk some Starbucks energy drink (nasty) and he was wide awake when I woke up to start my shift.  Instead of driving I kept him company until 1am (2am eastern time) and then I took over and drove the last 57 miles on the turnpike.  Let me tell you, besides the food situation, Christmas day is a great time to drive.  There was not much traffic and I don't think we saw one cop.  We pulled into Elverson at 3:20 eastern time.  We put the girls right in their beds, grabbed one suitcase each from the car and fell into bed.  And here concludes my Mexico post, the next one will cover our PA visit!

This was our room.  Emily slept in the pack 'n play underneath those clothes.  I slept where Haley is napping in the picture and Haley slept next to me and David slept in the hammock.