Babe-O’s Christmas World Tour

Today was a big day for our little girl.

Last night, Mom-O was up late getting us packed for our holiday rounds, an 800 mile loop that will take us from our cozy snowy home, all the way across Pennsylvania, into Delaware, and back again.

I was also up late, but instead of being busy packing I was busy not putting gas in the car. (Attention aspiring English Majors: the preceding line is what's known as foreshadowing.)

So we were up late last night, which led to getting out of bed late this morning. This was a problem, as we has breakfast plans with Mom-O's folks followed by back-to-back gatherings at other pretty rural locations, the kind where the roads are two lanes, the Amish hog both, and the gas stations are few and far between. (You still with me, English Majors?)

Anyway, we made it out to our first stop, where we had plenty of time to eat a bountiful breakfast and to catch our breath. From there it was off to our first set of Christmas festivities. Babe-O was wearing her Sunday best, a cute little red dress complete with white leggings and little shiny black shoes. She hated it, and did much fussing and fidgeting.

She did pretty well at the party, particularly once we got her dress off of her and put her in something more comfortable. She isn't used to being surrounded by noisy, excited people, so we had to take her into a back room to catch her breath every once in a while. All told, though, it was a good time and the visit was a success.

Then it was off to our next destination, following a brief and much needed pit-stop at Mom-O's folks' house.

Our next stop was filled with more people and more noise, so once again Babe-O was a little wigged out from time to time. She did, however, spend quite a bit of time with people that weren't us, which was certainly a testament to her budding independence. She often kept one eye on us from across the room as she was held by different family members and actually took a nap with Amy's uncle in a big comfy recliner that is known for slowly draining sitters of all will to remain awake.

We got through the night with a minimum of crying, though by the time we left, it was getting harder and harder to keep the little one happy. She was clearly a little overwhelmed/overtired and was happy to get back to more low key surroundings.

But getting to low key surroundings turned out to be more difficult that we expected. We hopped in the car and stopped at a nearby Country Fair to get gas, something we had avoided doing on the way because the baby was happy in the moving car and we really didn't want to make any waves.

Big mistake.

It's Christmas Day, which apparently means that gas stations are closed. No self serve. No nothing.

Lucky for us, we were following Mom-O's parents, so we weren't completely on our own. Driving through the Pennsylvania woods with zero gas makes you notice three things about Pennsylvania woods: (1) there isn't much shoulder to speak of; (2) there isn't anywhere to buy gas even if it wasn't Christmas Day; and (3) there isn't any cell phone service anywhere, so if you do run into trouble, your sorry butt had better start walking.

It was a really bad scene, and I pretty much made myself sick worrying about making it where we were going and thinking about how I had brought my wife and baby out into the middle of nowhere in a vehicle that wasn't up to the trip. Now I know how all of those wagon-driving Dads felt back in the day, when things almost never went as planned.

Fortunately, for various reasons throughout my life, I've had the chance to drive cars on fumes and knew that I was smarter than your av-er-age bear when it comes to fuel economy. Mom-O was understandably miffed at the situation, but I was pretty sure that a light foot on the pedal and the extra 9 miles per gallon you can pick up through the magic of positive thinking would get us either to the house or to a Jewish gas station that was open on Christmas. A few phone calls made by Mom-O-in-Law told us that Kwik-Fill was open and we managed to coast our way there.

It was a relief to be there and a lesson well learned the hard way.

On a happy note, it was nice to be able to fill a bone dry gas tank for under $30. It wasn't long ago that it took $20 just to make the needle move. Happy Recession America!

So we made it back to the house and managed to unwind and get Babe-O down to bed. It was a few hours past her usual bed time, but WAY earlier than it would have been if the gasoline gods hadn't smiled on us the way they did.

I admit that I am still completely tweaked about the whole gas debacle and am only just settling down enough to get some sleep. I am really, really glad that it worked out the way it did. I really wouldn't mind spending the night walking down some woody road if I was on my own, but thinking about Mom-O and Babe-O stuck in that car makes me sick.

Ack! Now that I have told my little story, it's time to join the rest of the house in getting some sleep. We will be leaving dark and early in the morning so that Babe-O will sleep for as much of the trip as possible and hopefully we'll make it to Delaware to see my folks earlier rather than later.

Plus, it'll probably take us a little longer than usual because I am not planning to let the gas gauge drop below nine tenths of a tank.

Merry Christmas everybody!