Saturday, December 30, 2017

December

We spent most of December in Muncie, Indiana. We really enjoy Muncie, and I was really excited to go. What I wasn't expecting was temperatures in the teens most of the time. I have never been so cold in my life, and I don't even know how and why people live up north. The sad part is that we are going back for January, and it's going to be even colder. We (especially Daniel) will really deserve our beach vacation in May.

One of our first days there we visited Alexandria, home of the Gaithers and Joey Feek. We had been here before, but I wanted to go back since we were so close.



Alexandria is also home of the largest ball of paint. We drove into the couple's driveway, and they couldn't have been more nice and welcoming. They told us the really cool story of how it started (a baseball), and let us put a coat on. We were coat number 25,809. It took way longer to paint than I thought! We even got certificates that told us our coat number and the date. It was just a really neat experience.



Ever since we lived here in 2014 I wanted to visit Monument Circle during the holidays. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument is decorated with lights, and it is really cool at night. Luckily when we first got to IN it wasn't too cold yet. We went into the city one night and got to see the lights. There is also a mailbox for your Santa letter, so the kids dropped theirs off. What a fun night!


So, we go to Indiana, we freeze our butts off, and we get a dusting of snow while Alabama gets the snow of a lifetime! Not cool. And it was so cold and windy when it snowed that we literally stayed outside in it for 3 minutes. What a waste. 

I'm realizing as I'm writing this post that I didn't take very many pictures in Muncie. We spent A LOT of time at the library. It was too cold to do anything outside, and a hotel room gets old quick. Luckily Muncie has an awesome library. We went to story time one week and the kids loved playing reindeer games. 





Another cool thing we got to do was Lights at the Brickyard. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway had millions of lights along the speedway, and we got to drive on it to see the cool lights. We literally sat in line for 2 hours before we actually made it on the Speedway. It was worth it one time, but I would never go back. 

A few days before we came home the kids and I went into the city. Muncie is an hour from Indy, so we only went a couple times. It was finally warmer (like 40s warm, so not really), and we visited our favorite spots. The kids really wanted to walk up the stairs to the top of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It is 330 steps, and I honestly didn't think they could do it. Boy, was I wrong. They bounded up those stairs, and I thought I was going to die. But I'm so glad I can say I did it. Then we ate at our favorite pizza place in Monument Circle. I saw a commercial for a Festival of Trees downtown, so we walked to it. It was close to a mile there and a mile back, and I have no idea how the kids did that after those stairs! I was proud of them!




The Festival of Trees was really cool. There were 80 trees decorated by different businesses and organizations around Indy. You could vote for your favorite, but I wouldn't even know where to start! It was A Christmas Story day when we went, so Avery dressed up in the bunny costume and Colt liked the leg lamp. This was the perfect way to end our very cold, cabin fever time in Muncie.

And this is where the picture taking all but stopped. I probably said a few cuss words trying to make these stupid gingerbread houses with Colt. Pretty sure the kids just ate the gingerbread and icing without making the houses. Fine by me.


We had a good Christmas. The kids got too much, as usual. We went to my mom's the day after Christmas, and we had fun spending time in Birmingham. 

Poor Daniel has to go back to Indiana on the first and work in single digits. The kids and I will join him in a couple weeks, then hopefully February will bring some time off.

I have some very specific, maybe lofty goals for 2018, and I'm looking forward to digging deep and getting motivated. 
Here's to an awesome 2018!!

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