Now in Columbus...

Shirley arrived to pick us up this morning right on schedule. We left the house a little after 9am. Our flight was at Noon. We managed to get bulkhead seats once again. This trip we decided to bring Paul's carseat onto the plane. Great plan and Carl gets credit once again! Paul loved sitting in his carseat and he was great the entire flight!!! Okay, I'll take a little credit. I bought him a brand spanking new toy from Target - a toy cell phone. He loved it. Every time you flip it closed it rings. At one point an airline attendant came walking down the aisle scanning seats...she was looking for the person with the cell phone. She was wondering how in the world we were receiving calls in the air! Ha.

As soon as we sat down in the rental car, Paul fell asleep. He got a total of 15 mins napping as we drove to the restaurant for supper. We ate in German Village at Schmitz's. (Thanks to Bernie for introducing us to this restaurant several years ago.) There was a chocolate shop across the street so I went over and bought a few handmade pieces. Carl doesn't eat chocolate (well, rarely), Paul doesn't yet know chocolate exists...so guess who is going to be eating them. :)

We checked into the Ronald McDonald House between 5 and 6pm. Carl went to the grocery store to pick up some food for tomorrow's breakfast. I stretched out on the bed while Paul played with his toys. (Thank you, Walton's, for the nifty little Paul-size backpack. It has been perfect for this trip.) Anyway, there's no TV in the room, so I turned on the alarm clock radio. The station that came on was playing Christmas music. And that made me think of my grandmother. We're only 2 hours from Cleveland. The cold weather and Columbus landscape make me think of our annual trips to Cleveland each year to be with Grandmother and Papa. Every year we drove 12 hours from Moulton, AL to Cleveland - there was no such thing as DVD players in the car. We did something really strange. We looked out the windows. Anyway, we made that trek for 17 some odd years - and when you do it that long, you began to memorize everything. So Dad, as we drove I-71 through Columbus...I got misty-eyed. I called Grandmother tonight and talked to her and started to get her misty-eyed too, so I quit talking about it. Please don't read her this part of the blog...I don't want to make her sad. Anyway, where am I going with all this. Well, as I'm sitting there talking to Grandmother, listening to Christmas music and watching Paul play, I think it is now MY turn to make beautiful Christmas memories with our son. Pressure!

Thank you, Dad, for making that trip to OH all those years...I KNOW it wasn't easy.

Carl is watching the FL/SC game in the RMH lobby and Paul is playing at his feet.

All is well. Thank you for all your prayers. I'll do my best to keep you posted every day.