On The Road: Illinois

We played the last three games of the trip in West Frankfort, IL.

We won two, pretty handily, and lost one ugly one.

I love being able to be at road games, win or loss.

In between playing days we got to go to a really nice church gym/youth building in Carbondale to play and hang out.  JD reconnected with an old FCA friend who let us use his church's facilities.  Crazy-random connection.

We all enjoyed it!  :)

The kids are pretty good at hotel life any time, but having Nana and Papa only an open doorway away was just the icing on the cake.  Between playing hide and seek in the hotel (it was fairly large) and racing stairs vs. elevators, the kids (and my parents) found plenty to do!  :)

Because this trip was also our Christmas with my side of the family, my mom made sure to make it special.  She and the girls created a paper Christmas tree, complete with ornaments and a paper garland:

And my dad strung lights around to make it extra festive!

They also made a gingerbread village:

 

Our Christmas party was complete with stockings, gifts, snacks, and toasts with sparkling grape juice!

Even though I can hardly stand missing another Christmas in Iowa, it really turned out to be a great holiday.  We are SO grateful that my parents spent the time and money to be with us!