Our trip home: the summary

Wow, what a trip! I've gotten so behind that I've decided to post this quick recount of our trip...someday I hope to get some pics up!

Dec 17th: Departed Mumbai. Flight was relatively uneventful, save for the fact that Ryan would not sleep in his car seat. He demanded that we STAND with him in our arms. I finally begged Mike to let me sleep- for ONE hour. Two hours later, I woke up with a start, shaking and frantic. Mike said he could hear me snoring across the plane….I didn’t care- after all, he’d let me have a whole extra hour of sleep!

Dec 18th: Arrived Newark. Had 3 hour layover. Departed Newark- late. Ryan cried (screamed, actually) the entire flight. Then Cate puked. Oh boy, that sure was a fun flight. I was sweating with stress, and was about to kill the next person who suggested that Ryan’s ears might be clogged….HELLO, HE’S JETLAGGED! MYOB!!! I’M FREAKIN’ OUT OVER HERE! Arrived Houston. Mike’s brother, Jay picked us up- bless him. Helped unload our 5 bags (yes, I did a GREAT job packing light) before taking off. I headed to the grocery store and bought $250 worth of basics. We were all in bed by 6 pm. Ugh- what a trip.

Dec 19th: Got up early for a well-deserved manicure/pedicure appointment, followed by a haircut. Squeezed in a last-minute haircut for Cate too. I (barely) drove to the airport to pick up my parents that night. THANK GOD- our rescuers have arrived!

Dec 20th: The first of many miserable nights with Ryan. Discovered that both kids have bad colds. Had a photo shoot with friend Sarah Hubbell- she works wonders with photoshop, and managed to hide all snotty noses.

Dec 21st: Complete blur. Ryan was killing me. I think I slept on the floor of his room for a few hours…not sure.

Dec 22nd: Went to see Santa at Bass Pro- Cate cried at first and Ryan was oblivious, but we got a good picture! Ducked into a few kids clothing stores. Dinner at Steve and Jen's...they were such good sports for hosting us after a long work day. Constantly apologizing to my parents for being complete duds- just soooo tired.

Dec 23rd: Doctor’s appointments for both kids. Shots all around. Lots of shrieking. Not fun. Dropped by Kristen’s gingerbread house-decorating party, but managed to stay for only an hour. Squeezed in a playdate with Amelia, our neighbor. Ryan had his first solid meal- rice cereal! Got it on video, he liked it! He'd been more than ready for a while.

Dec 24th: Christmas Eve. Prepped for Christmas dinner. Relaxed. Mass in the evening- great music, nice homily. Mike and I shared the "'Twas the Night before Christmas" reading- a Piazze family tradition that has been going strong for 35 years.

Dec 25th: Christmas Day! YAY! Both kids are happy, even though Santa really SUCKED this year. I mean, how can Santa do very much shopping from ½-way around the world? But overall, both kids made out like bandits and we are so grateful for everyone’s generosity- we are so blessed. Mom made a DELICIOUS dinner- standing rib roast, twice baked potatoes and salad. Yummy pumpkin pie for dessert- who could ask for anything more?

Dec 26th: Prepped for Open House. Relaxed (kind of).

Dec 27th: The Weatherwax Open House- super fun! We ended up with about 50 people stopping by- a great turnout! Although I felt like I was pinging all over, trying to talk to everyone, getting distracted every 10 seconds….guess that’s what hosting is all about. It was great to get caught up with folks and see some we hadn't seen in years!

Dec 28th: Went out for an early dinner to the best Mexican restaurant (at least we think so!) in Houston- Guadalajara. One word: margaritas. Oh, two more: chips and salsa. 'Nuff said.

Dec 29th: Visited the Houston Children’s Museum. Completely redone, and absolutely cool. Mom and Dad treated us with some babysitting so Mike and I could have a date night to Taste of Texas and get some MEAT. (Insert grunt here- from both of us!): MEAT GOOD.

Dec 30th: Enjoyed our last day with Mom and Dad, said a tearful goodbye- will not see them again till the summer. Turned around and drove to the other Houston airport and welcomed Mike's sister Cari and her husband Shaun. Yay- they got to meet Ryan!

Dec 31st: Enchanged Christmas gifts with Cari and Shaun, lounged, watched football, started Happy Hour at 2 pm....you know, typical New Year's Eve stuff! Haha! Left Catherine with a sitter and headed over to Tom and Christina's for a fantastic little shindig...Tom is a quite the wine expert and treated us to several bottles of VERY expensive wine. Awesome food too! Ran outside in the freezing cold to count down the last 10 seconds of 2009: Happy New Year! Now let's run back in.

Jan 1st: Recovered. Watched more football. Lived by my old motto: gotta bite the snake that bit ya...and started Happy Hour at 2 pm again. Darn that Shaun! :)

Jan 2nd: Took a drive out to Brazos Bend State Park for a bit of walking, alligator hunting and picnic lunching. We did indeed end up seeing 3 or 4 pretty big alligators! Thank goodness they were so far away...I like my fingers and toes, thank you very much. Picnic ended up being sub-zero, but we still enjoyed the crooked sandwiches Mike had made! Heehee!

Jan 3rd: Hugs all around and said goodbye to Cari and Shaun...we hope to see them in Baltimore this summer for sure! Headed over to Mike's brother Jay's house for dinner and more Christmas presents. Catherine was over the moon to see her cousins Keira and JJ, and they got to see Ryan for the first time since he was about 6 weeks old. Fun to catch up!

Jan 4-11: Crammed as many playdates in as we could...I think we managed at least one a day, sometimes 2! Lots of shopping and stressing out- did NOT want to go back.

Jan 12-13: Trip back to India was literally miraculous. The kids were complete angels and slept almost the entire trip. Opened the door to our Evita apartment at 12:30 am, hit the hay and passed out.

Jan 14-17: Did not leave the house for 4 straight days. I'm not joking. We were battling the extreme jetlag (it's an 11.5 hour time difference), and I was in complete denial that I was back in India. This course of action, however, ended up being the exact therapy we all needed. I've now dubbed it my "Return-to-India-recovery-plan".

Now we are back into the swing of things, and we're having fun in India again. The trip home was a whirlwind, but so fun and well worth it!