Knowing that this probably my mom's last Christmas, Kaylon and I made the decision to drive (uh, hello, 1000$/person plane tickets) nonstop across the United States to Arizona over Christmas break (Kaylon needed to get back to work before Jan 2). We left the Friday before Christmas- the goal was to leave at 8pm, with the girls ready for bed and one of us to fall asleep while the other drove. Of course Murphy's law had to come into play- Moira got her fingers closed in the hinge side of the front door and Yoda tore off a nail at the neighbor's house 5 minutes after dropping him off. Lots of ice for Moira, a 150$ trip to the vet, and a 2.5 hour delay later we were in the van driving southeast. I'll save you the details of the drive- let's just say it was horrible at some moments- tolerable in others, but we managed it in less than 48 hours.
Christmas was wonderful- All of mom's eight grandchildren were there at some point Christmas morning, where my sister's Christmas tree was completely surrounded my presents. The cousins had a great time playing/fighting with each other, and are finally at an age where they will remember one another. Mom had a great week health-wise. She was up and about, ate well (for her) and had more energy than I expected. We got to spend lots of time together- even got to go to the temple with Angela, while Kaylon watched all 8 grandkids (Thanks Honey!). We had grand plans of taking family pictures which didn't happen, but we did manage to get some before we got back on the road for Virginia.
I swore I would never do it, but I will never regret driving to Arizona and spending Christmas with my mom. Not even the drive home through snow, rain, fog, and cold would do that. It was a week to be remembered and totally worth everything I did and more.
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