Christmas with the Dalias

We had settled into our apartment in Jacksonville for all of 4 days, barely long enough to get our internet hooked up and unpack, when we packed kids and presents (conspicuously absent was the imported Dominican Christmas Tree, which along with our seashell pictures were our sole decorations in our apartment), dosed kids with travel medicine, and headed north towards Charlotte.  We wondered at our decision when we saw all the traffic headed south, and realized people love to spent Christmas in Florida, and we were heading north.  

Four of the 9 little boys ages 2-4.  Sam intimidating Will by giving him a hug and once he gets a response from someone he continues the same behavior. (Clockwise:  Max, Marcus, Sam and Will)

The girl crew here, often led by Emmie and Alisa. We could tell our kids were Minnesotans (or else the only neglected ones), as they were the only ones running around without jackets, socks or shoes. 

(left to right: Tali, Ella, Alisa, Madeline, Emmie, Katie, and Addie)

We stayed with Erin and family for three fun-filled days.  Early Saturday, we headed to Sarah's house for a family get-together.  One of the top ten things my children love to do is to enter the Dalia Chaos.  This could perhaps qualify as a newly defined experience, encountered when one aligns with 17 siblings, two parents, 6 spouses and soon to be 21 grandchildren (all under the age of 8) in any public place or even private home.  My kids look forward to this, talk about this, long for it--to be one of the gang again.  They do not need any entertainment, they provide their own-- they just need space.  My girls dream of being part of a gang like this, and the idea of leading a gang just excites them.

Since Will was sleeping, Sam was the youngest and the first to open a present.

I realized that Max smiled in all the pictures where he had a present, but in few of the pictures where he did not.

This gathering could hardly be qualified as Dalia Chaos.  There were only two parents, 12 children, 3 spouses and 9 grandchildren.  Yet my children's yearnings were satisfied, and this was likely their best of all Christmas presents.  We had a wonderful meal, some Mitt Romney chit-chat, and kept all kids from danger.  The highlight was opening presents, my kids loved the attention of opening a present under the watchful eyes of 25 other oohs and aahs.  The only disappointment was that we were only together for 3 hours before we all had to leave.

Ella had the largest gift of the day, a gigantic horse book, which garnered much attention.

Madeline loved her American Girl Doll and books.

After the family get together, Erin and I prepared for Christmas, we helped the girls make cinnamon rolls for Santa Claus,  we chatted while the guys watched some football.  For Ryan it was like going back to his boyhood; sitting with his childhood friend (though I have heard Ryan would beat on Tom and Mark some), watching football and reminiscing about Greg's glasses, someone's high pitched siren cry, and the neighborhood football games.  Eating pulled pork that Mark had smoked only added to the appeal.  I still chuckle sometimes at the happenstance of my sister marrying my husband's neighbor.

The boys weren't always as social as the girls were.

Everyone was good-natured about Sam yelling "this is dumb", and "stupid", and all sorts of other offenses.  Luckily he entertained with sweetness just as often.

Christmas morning chaos

Madeline treasured her gum, a gift from Ella.

Another smile from a happy boy.

The girls all loved playing together, crafting together and singing together, whenever we had the girls car (because of course, we divided the cousins along gender lines when driving places), they all sang along to the Peter Breinholt Christmas CD.  The boys enjoyed cars and trains.  We had such a fun time together, that when we left Monday morning, we pulled away a crying Max again, who sobbed for 45 minutes while intermittently yelling at us to stop and turn the car around.  We weren't able to get him to take his travel medicine until a good 2 hours into the drive.  And we also put a damper on an otherwise great Christmas cd, as when we listened to Peter Brienholt the next day in the car, Madeline said she could barely listen to it because it reminded her so much of singing with Katie.  That aside, we had a wonderful time, and realized how much we enjoy being with family.

The girls before we went to church on Christmas day. (Katie, Ella, Madeline and Addie)

Sam's personality matched his expression.  As usual, there was someone at church who grew up with Ryan.  It's an ongoing joke we have that any church we visit will have at least one family from North Ogden, UT.  Having grown up in the Appalachians, an hour from church, I don't have that same network.

Marcus, Mark, Katie, Addie and Erin.

Dominican Republic- 10 years later

Ten years ago, in a trip that tested the short bonds of our marriage, Ryan and I traveled to Haiti.  We left Utah during the winter olympics, even when many of the events were being held in little Midway, where we lived, for an opportunity to travel to a Caribbean country (we were thinking in terms of the Bahamas).  We were checking out an orphanage for my parents; who were interested in becoming involved in charity work.This was back in the days when you could pack two big suitcases a person, and a large carry-on.  In our suitcases, we carried a disassembled cement mixer, which is quit heavy, even when dispersed into 4 different suitcases.

  

We had flown into Miami, and neither of us had made hotel reservations, so we hopped on a shuttle that would take us to a Holiday Inn.  When we got to the hotel at midnight, it was full, but the shuttle driver assured us he knew another motel he could take us to.  This happened to be a rent-by-the hour/by-the-week motel in downtown Miami.  We dared not touch anything in our room, we laid out our sleeping bags on the bed, didn't dare shower, and left at the crack of dawn.  Ryan said more swear words that night that I've heard from him in 10 years combined.

The rest of our trip was similar to this, it was not a luxurious vacation on a Caribbean beach.  It was pretty hard work, and quite an adventure.   We had heard the DR was a nice visit, so our last day, we took a bus over to the DR- hoping to visit a nice beach once on our trip. When we arrived the DR was going to charge us some minute amount of money for being American, we decided to go back to Haiti without seeing the Dominican Republic, which we have both regretted. 

With Ed and Jayne in the Dominican Republic, we decided to give the other 1/3 of the island of Hispanola another go.  A lot more planning went into this trip.  We lined up our trip to the Dominican Republic with a month-long rotation at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, so we would be gone for close to 6 weeks.  We loaded our car, and started out at 4:00 pm on Friday, watching the temperature climb from -2 all the way to 80 by the time we reached Miami on Sunday afternoon.

  

To keep things fun on our trip, we stopped at Chick-fil-e in Georgia, a luxury since there is only one Chick-fil-e in all of MN.  We watched movies, and everyone learned how to play on the IPAD, including Max.  As soon as  I learned to give everyone a sliver of a travel sickness pill at the beginning of the driving day, our car improved in smell.  

This time I made reservations on Priceline.  I have a sort of addiction with the "Name your own Price" feature on Priceline.  I am enamored with the possibility of getting the absolute lowest price for a room, and I love the gamble of a hotel choice (unlike our first Miami trip, I insist of 3 star or above).  Our children LOVE to stay in hotels, so each night was a treat when we pulled into our hotel.

Our first day, we visited Happyland.  Max said, "we went down so fast, it made my mouth scream open".  Ella looks terrified, but this was her 7th time.

We stayed in an apartment on the temple grounds about half the time we were in the Dominican Republic.  The temple is very beautiful, and we all enjoyed walking around the temple grounds.  One evening, Ryan and I walked down the street to get an ice cream cone, and then walked around the temple grounds at dusk.  I love eating an ice cream at dusk in December as I take a walk.  

Reminiscent of my mission, I got up every morning to exercise.  I relished running and walking around the park next to the temple, with the warm Carribean air wafting a promise of another gorgeous day.

Our second day, we visited the church camp in the mountains of Bonao, where we experienced a zip line, a man-made merry-go-round, a rip orange grove, and the magnificent mango trees.

Grandpa winding Madeline up the Merry-go Round.  This Merry-go Round literally takes your breathe away.

I recognized many of the regions in the Dominican Republic, and the experience was  more familiar because of reading the wonderful books, "In the Time of Butterflies" and "The Feast of the Goat".  Ryan read and enjoyed, "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao".

"Sam-well" as the Dominicans called him made friends where-ever we went.  By the time we got back to the states, he would walk around chanting "Samwell, Samwell".  Here he is chatting up a vendor outside of Los Tres Ohos (Three Lakes), an open air limestone cave on the outskirts of Santo Domingo. 

This is the third of three lakes, and it looks like something out of the Pirates of the Carribean. 

On our third day, we went to the beach, which had been much anticipated. Max spent hours laying in the surf, rolling with the water.  He also spent a lot of time collecting seashells.

Sam loved "going in deep" and having an adult swim him around.  And resting-once. 

These girls couldn't have been happier, playing in the water, on the sand, and collecting seashells, all with the company of grandparents and parents.

The sand and the water still make me dreamy.

The kids got the hang of the buffet pretty quickly, requesting noodles and cheese, and choosing all their colors from the plethora of sweets on the dessert table.

They routinely requested buffet, as the dinner or breakfast of choice when we got back to the states.  We loved the fresh bananas and pineapple, along with the fresh juices.  Our favorite food, though was the great avocados, so tasty with everything.

One of the beautiful birds we saw.

Sam loved to visit the Flamingo pool, and often tried to dodge the barrier ropes to swim with them.

Everyone enjoyed playing in the sand with Grandma. Madeline and Ella also looked forward to opening a gift every night, a Dominican tradition.  The kids loved reading books with their grandparents, and we all enjoyed a fun game of Dominoes, another Dominican tradition.

Sweet boy.

Max has this same look in an alarming number of pictures, it's hard to capture the joy he routinely experiences.  After the beach, we headed to a small church to do a seashell picture.  Max loved a picture of Captain Moroni heading up a battle, and the girls loved beautiful pictures of the temple.  This made me chuckle.

We enjoyed the time we had together to play and talk with no other obligations.  Ryan loved the ready supply of pina colada and frozen lemonaide.

Ryan and I with the Christopher Columbus house in the background.  We enjoyed the rich history of the DR. 

Still at the square where Christopher Columbus lived with a gun pointed out at the water, and the beautiful blooming Bourgainvillea bush.  I tried everyone's patience at the market trying to find a necklace made from bulls horns. One of the memento's from a vacation to remember the time we all kept our mouths closed to prevent swear words or snarky comments.

Max was crying the whole way to the airport, and Ella kept peppering him with argumentative banter. He cried all the through the airport, insisting I carry him.    The promise of Angry Birds when we got on the plane pacified him only a little. Instead of a cement mixer, we came back with pounds of seashells, and a mini Christmas tree donated by Grandma Jayne- as the girls couldn't stand not having a tree for Christmas.  The airport staff was very friendly to us as the largest family there, and assisted us at every step.

After all the customs, the kids sitting outside the Miami airport watching a movie while we wait for our shuttle.

Finally on the shuttle back to the Miami hotel.  The end of our Dominican trip, but the beginning of our Florida trip.  We drove to Jacksonville that night, arriving at our apartment at 3 am.  

We delighted in our (second) trip to the Dominican Republic;  the people, the food, the landscape,the weather- all aspects were so lovely.