Our Christmas Trip Part 1

For Christmas this year, Ashley and I took a trip down south (much better weather down there).

The first thing we noticed on our trip was that when I drive, we get there much, much later than we do if Ashley drives. It turns out that our car does not have cruise control. If I am the one driving, our speed slowly decreases until we are creeping along at like 20 miles under the speed limit. Those are unsafely slow speeds, especially when you have an impatient wife in the passenger seat. I say this as a prelude to the following: Ashley, over 7 months pregnant and all, drove most of the way down, all around, and then all of the way back. It turns out that when she drives, we actually get around much more quickly. In fact, she derives a lot of pleasure, it seems, from watching the estimated arrival time on the GPS get earlier and earlier by the minute as she zips past the other cars on the freeway.

I found that my talents are better used elsewhere while on road trips. Like hallucinating. Take a look at this car.


It was right ahead of us for a long time. Can you honestly say it's not scowling at us? Look at those red lights. Just like two little scheming eyes. Who knows what kind of mischief that car was planning. Whatever it is, it was no good. So we passed it. Well...Ashley did. If I were driving it would have been just a blur as it flew by us.

Anyway, we arrived safely at Heber's house. We were a bit late because of the time I had spent driving. Actually very late. The trip from Chicago to St Louis took 8 hours. We're not sure where that time went, actually. I didn't drive THAAAT slowly.

Heber's family recently acquired a Wii, so Hyrum and Stephanie showed us how to really work it. Well, Stephanie was more of a cheerleader.

I'll tell you, playing tennis in the comfort of your home and without having to put on short shorts is a mighty fine thing.

As is tradition in all Farnsworth households, Heber and Debbie's family acted out the Christmas story. This year Ashley and I were able to play the pregnant Mary and Joseph. Well Mary was more pregnant than Joseph--and she had a very convincing waddle to go with the belly. Finally I didn't have to be a sheep. This is just one of the many perks of being married, I'm telling you--at the reunion last year, Ashley and I got to have our own bedroom (and even a hotel room for a while). The previous reunion, as a bachelor, I slept on a cot in my parent's closet. Yes, the closet. Feel the love. Anyway soon I will get to move up from being Joseph all the way to being wicked king Herod. Tell me I ever would have achieved that as a single man.


I'll tell you, Christmas makes a lot more sense and it's a lot more exciting when there are children around. Since Ashley and I are still waiting on ours, we borrowed some of that excitement from Heber's kids. Actually I think Stephanie was excited enough about the first present she got (a set of princess shoes) that she kind of injected enough enthusiasm into us to last until our own little baby arrives.

Highlight of Christmas Eve: At the end of the play, Heber and Debbie asked what's going to happen tomorrow. Stephanie replied with incredible excitement "baby Jesus!" That wasn't what anyone was expecting, but no one wanted to correct her. Santa Claus gets more than his fair share of children's attention during the holidays.

Actually it's 2:20AM now, so I'll tell you about Christmas itself later.