POST HOLIDAY UPDATE

Jules’ Journal:

By: Julianne Lillie, 1/3/2023

Our Time at Home for the Holidays:

Since we pulled into our driveway late Thursday 12/8, it has been a whirlwind! We absolutely hit the ground running! In 25 days, we had 8 Family Christmases, 8 doctor appointments, 7 kid sleepovers, celebrated 4 Family birthdays, 4 trips to visit Great Gram, 4 dental cleanings, 2 get-togethers with friends, 1 Oral surgery (Jett had 2 impacted teeth cut out), 1 work trip to Dallas, and 1 Vacation to Cabo, Mexico! Whew!

But we were all so glad to be HOME! The things the kids missed the most about our house were their own rooms and beds. Jaycie also really missed her rabbit, Cotton. And Jett has desperately missed a stable WIFI connection! The things Jason and I missed the most was our big shower, bed, and dishwasher! I also will add I really missed flushing toilet paper. (It's the little things we take for granted!) And Jason has missed his home gym!

What we didn't miss were home repairs! We came home to a garbage disposal that was leaking. So on night 2 at home, Jason was swapping out the old with the new! But hey, its still so good to be HOME!

I am happy to say I was able to decorate the house in time for Christmas and even got 2 of our 3 trees put up! Jason even got some Christmas lights thrown onto our bushes to add some cheer to our cul de sac!

It was a special Christmas this year for us. In our house we do the traditional Santa gifts (unwrapped) that get set out Christmas Eve night. When the kids were little they both believed in Santa. However, when Jaycie was 10 she began questioning Santa’s existence, and I took her out for a snow cone date in July. I told her how much growth I had seen in her heart as she showed love and generosity for others and that she was now ready to know the secret and become Santa for her brother. I remember the pure joy that filled her face just like it was yesterday! She was so excited and honored to step into that important role! That Christmas she worked hard as “Detective Secret Santa” for Jett and was able to assist me with ordering Jett’s gift. She even took full charge of moving our elves around! (WIN!) And she was the one to stuff his stocking and stay up late to set out his gift on Christmas Eve. After Christmas she said she enjoyed this Christmas the most because she enjoyed being Santa!

Fast forward to last September in the RV, Jett at age 11 asked me if I was Santa Claus. And I could honestly reply with, “No” knowing that Jaycie was. (Ha!) But I could tell he was curious and that it was time for the talk! He has always been a giver and the year before had requested a big gift from Santa just so he could turn around and gift it to his best friend the next day – which he did! So, I sat him down and had the same talk with him. And thankfully he had the exact reaction of his sister… he was SO excited to be Santa for his sister! This was his first year “graduated” to being Santa and he did a lot of research and shopping for his sister in the fall. On Christmas Eve night he got to stay up late stuffing her stocking and setting up her gift. I could really tell he enjoyed his new role. Here’s a pic of him after he set it all up on Christmas Eve night. He was so excited for her to see it!

And after Christmas was over, he told me it was the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER because he got to be the giver! Yep, both of my kids get it – Giving is so much better than receiving! So, for all of you parents out there dreading the Santa talk with your littles, turn it into a positive and teachable moment!

It was also a special Christmas for us in that it was probably our last Christmas with my Grandma whom my kid’s call, “Great Gram.” We had a fabulous Christmas with her on 12/17 where most of our extended family got together and celebrated in Bartlesville. There were 7 great grandkids in attendance (the other 3 were missed as they live overseas in India) and they all performed for Great Gram in our family Talent Show. It was so fun to watch! Here’s some highlight photos from that Christmas. Memories we will cherish forever!

And not to leave out my other family… here’s some photos from our other 7 family Christmases!

Best Family Christmas: (And no I’m not picking favorites, “Best” is the family’s last name!)

Christmas with my dad (Papa Mike) which we did in Great Gram's apartment which was fun.

Christmas with my mom (Abuela) & Grandpa Bill:

Christmas with Jason’s mom (Grandma Bev):

Christmas with Jason’s Dad (Grandad), Marla (Grandmar), & family:

Christmas morning with just us:

Christmas with the Cochran’s:

And then after the Christmas marathon was over, we had 1 day to pack for Cabo, Mexico! My dad invited the 4 Js to stay with him at his house in Cabo along with my mom, stepdad Bill, and Great Gram! The 7 of us flew down to Cabo on Tuesday 12/27 and enjoyed the warm weather, beautiful beach, gorgeous views, & inviting pool! It was such a relaxing time to be with family and unwind. And more importantly it was precious time we got to spend with Great Gram! We thoroughly enjoyed making more memories with her in one of her favorite vacation spots!!! She sat in this chair most of the time enjoying the view and listening to the waves crash onto the beach. On the last day she coined this spot as the “50 yard line” because it had the best view of the ocean!

Her chair:

Her 50 yard line view:

With her new shades on!

The kids absolutely loved driving us adults all around on the golf carts! And they got to be pretty good drivers by the end of the trip!

We ate the yummiest French toast for breakfast courtesy of some good friends of ours!

Here are some more highlight photos of this precious trip:

Jett & Grandpa Bill tore it up on the Pickle Ball courts!

Famous Blue Door Photo!

Fun playing games in the evenings!

Jaycie's water color art for Great Gram!

We returned home on Friday evening 1/30 and had 24 hours to plan & prep for a New Year’s Eve party at our house with our beloved Life Group! It was a full-on Lillie Team effort that day as we all divided and conquered the chores/tasks and made it happen! We hosted the first ever Redneck Olympics and had a tournament of 12 teams and 6 games! It was so much fun! We laughed, ate, played, cheered, & yelled until midnight! It was just what us adults needed to keep us awake to ring in the New Year! Here’s some highlight photos:

Flip Tac Toe:

Pantyhose Knockout:

Our tournament Bracket Central:

Foosball:

Sharp Shooter:

Pool:

And of course Cornhole!

Team "Jettson" (Jett + Jackson) ended up winning the golden trophy!

And we made it to MIDNIGHT! Minutes before the countdown!

I enjoyed seeing all my work peeps at CerpassRx in the Dallas office as well as we kicked off our company's busiest season on Jan. 2nd! I have the greatest work family ever!

Another fun thing we did was add all our Stickers we collected from the first half of our trip to our Garage Game Room wall. We collected a sticker at every place we visited and we’ll carry on this tradition through our 2nd half of the trip! It was enjoyable reminiscing together as we were sticking them on our wall!

Before with just a few stickers:

After:

What’s Next?:

Well, if you recall on our trip home we found ourselves on the side of the road in Arkansas for nearly 4 hours. By the grace of God, we were able to get the repairs we needed to “limp” our way home! Thank you, Lord! However, there is extensive work yet to be done on our trailer’s suspension hangar brackets before we can get back on the road! Because of the many issues we’ve had, Jason has been in contact with Lippert Components, (Maker of most all RV trailer parts,) and they have shipped us new hangar brackets & heavy duty shackles for our mobile RV tech/welder to install for us free of charge! They also agreed to reimburse us for the expenses we incurred in Arkansas as well. So that is a huge blessing! We are hoping to have this important item checked off the list within 2 weeks!

In addition, Jason’s Ford F250 truck needed quite a bit of maintenance. It has been in the shop for the last 20 days and we are eager to pick it up! We needed all 4 new tires and while we were at it, we decided to get all new wheels, too! We decided to go with a wider wheel base to give us more stability when pulling the trailer. We were also having issues with the after-market air bag suspension system he had installed in Iowa. At lower speeds our truck sounded like an old man rolling down the road… it was creaking, chirping, and squeaking constantly! The shop in OKC was able to duplicate these sounds and confirmed that was not normal! After much investigation, they ended up taking it all apart, greased everything, and put it all back together. We’re hopeful Jason can pick up our truck sometime this week!

Since I have been so focused on the Holidays and our Cabo trip, I’ve still got so much to do as well with prepping the RV and trip planning. I realized about a month into our trip that I brought WAAAYYY too much stuff with us in the RV! So, I have some purging to do before the 2nd half of the trip. Then re-stocking, of course, and some deep cleaning as well. And everything we took out of the camper while being at home will also have to be re-packed.

As far as trip planning, this has been the hardest to navigate. Originally the plan was to be back on the road by this Saturday 1/7. But with my Grandma’s health and the maintenance needs on the RV & truck, that is just not feasible. Therefore, we made the decision to stay home through at least the end of January. We’ll use this time to prepare for the 2nd half of the trip and spend time with my Grandma (Great Gram) as we monitor her health. Since we are losing 3.5 weeks of our 2nd half of the trip, we have decided to cut out Texas for now. We’ve already visited a lot of places in Texas and can make up the places we were going to go to later. Thankfully, Texas is our neighboring state! I also had to shave off some days in New Mexico & Arizona to make it all work, but somehow were able to still pack in all the major stuff! I anticipate the first 2 states will be fast & furious since we are making up for lost time, but once we get to Southern California, we’ll reach a more manageable pace!

I’ll try to keep you all posted as we continue to plan and prep for our 2nd half of the USA trip. Exciting adventures are ahead for the 4 Js! Happy New Year!