from the streets of philadelphia.
after montgomery, we had almost two full days off before we went back on the road for two and a half weeks.
basically, this meant i had a night off and got to sleep in my own bed.
i chose to hang out with my friends and do christmas things, since it was my only night off at home between thanksgiving and christmas.
it's a strange thing, being on a christmas tour but also kind of missing the christmas season. they play christmas shows each night, and everywhere we go has lights and christmas trees and festive decor, but none of it really feels like anything because i spend my days supervising craft projects, squirting hand sanitizer, and reminding each kid to "focus" on eating, putting on pajamas, or peeing in the potty and making sure it goes in the potty.
we do have a flat christmas tree and twinkly lights hung up on the bus, but i find i spent most of my time post-bedtime trying to eliminate the spilled milk odor, rather than enjoying any pine scent.
this is what it is to live on a tour bus at christmas time, i guess.
(and i totally wouldn't trade this experience for anything else at this point in my life.)
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we made christmas cookies, is my point. we watched a christmas movie. we talked about what's new and what's happening and how i'd get to be in new york city at christmastime.
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we were in greensboro next. i took zero pictures on this day. i don't remember much about it except that we were in north carolina, but not near my family.
i was the morning nanny, but it was sunday and we were playing at a church that night, which meant the kids could be checked into sunday school that morning and with the baby asleep, i found myself with a small window of free time. i got to drink my coffee and read my bible and enjoy almost 30 minutes of complete silence in the morning.
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the next day, we were in philadelphia. it was another neat venue/no nursery situation, so we took a walk to see what we could see.
we ended up finding a history museum in a wells fargo bank, where they had an old-timey carriage set up as a photo booth. we only had a few minutes by the time we found it, and we did snap a few iphone photos of the kids, but trying to use the photo booth was like herding cats. the photo we ended up with felt like a pretty accurate representation of what our lives are like on a daily basis.
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we were in new york city the next day, but in an effort to keep all of my heart eyes, i love new york photos contained in a single post, i'll come back to it.
what happened was, we went to new york for a private event, then to pennsylvania for a regular show the next night, and then back to new york city for the following three days.
it was sort of a tease, being in the city for a day, and then waking up the next day in a parking lot of a church that had actual sheep.
we went from the glamorous city life to the country in a matter of hours. it all felt very comical.
but there were gingerbread houses involved. and, without posting photos of the children themselves, i feel like this gives you somewhat of an idea of the personality types of the oldest two.
on the right, a five year old boy decorated his house, probably based on what was in the picture on the front of the box. on the left, a four year old girl went with her own design, probably based on something along the lines of the more, the better.