(Written by hand on the road...)

We made it almost the whole way to Eric's house tonight before Sam woke up and went ballistic. No matter; Eric had told me earlier that even if we made it the whole way to their hometown, he still wanted to stop at a hotel and claim we were a few hours out, just to give himself a little extra healing time before seeing his mom. She would have insisted we come on over, bronchitis or no, and he preferred to keep things tension-free.

But we ended up stopping in Charleston, anyway. Sam was more than thrilled to see us pull into the hotel parking lot so we could crash; it had been a long day for all of us.

First we had to look for a dress for me, since the HolyClothing one never did come through for us. I went to a couple of stores, searching; in the meantime, we picked up a few remaining items for the stockings, as well as Christmas gifts for Alysia's family. Around noon, we stopped for lunch, where Sam was complimented by a waitress for his behavior.

In the future, when I see that sort of thing coming, I swear, I'm just going to bodycheck the person to prevent it. The moment Sam hears the phrase "good little boy" or som permutation thereof, he immediately morphs into quite the opposite form of being. It's uncanny, and it's more than irritating.

So we go to pay the mortgage, and he tries to run away from the bank when I'm next in line. We go to our final dress destination, and he screeches about being pinioned into a stroller; when I let him out for a moment, he tries to hide under the racks. It was enough to nearly make my head explode.

We finally did find a dress, though. I narrowed it down to two choices: a dark red velvet number that fit well, but was really rather blah, and a much more ornate royal blue dress with beading and a jacket that was tighter around my stomach and butt. The jacket went a long way toward hiding the ill-fit part, though, and the red dress had short sleeves that exposed my yucky upper arms. I was torn, until I tried on the blue one again and Sam grinned and whispered, "Mama pretty!" All department stores should employ two-year-olds as salespeople; I went and bought the blue dress right then and there.

And then I bought some tummy-hiding underwear. I'm not a complete sucker for my son's compliments.

We dropped the gifts off at Alysia's house, leaving them on the doorknob and fleeing to avoid contamination with the Evil Death Flu. Luckily, Sam was asleep by now, so I didn't have to deal with a howling little boy who misses his best friend. Then we were back home to finish packing and last-minute cleaning before Eric got home from work. When he arrived, we loaded the car to the brim with bags and presents; we had to leave behind our largest gift to Sam, but it will make a nice Epiphany present when we return.

And then we drove. And drove. And drove.

This Sleep Inn was designed for the single travelling elf, I think. The "queen-sized" bed looks more like a double to me, and when you sit on the end of the bed, your knees touch the dresser. Never has a shoe-box looked so much like a castle.

Tomorrow we'll make the final leg of the trip, and then we'll leave immediately from there for the Greenbrier. I'm really excited about it, but I wonder how Sam will take to the idea of getting back in a car so soon. It's only an hour from Rita's house, though, and we'll be riding with Linda and Hailey in their huge SUV. I think he'll survive, if only due to the scintillating new company; he's been missing Hailey madly since Thanksgiving.

I'm doubting that I'll have either the time or the resources to update in the next few days, so I'll write entries by hand and upload them when I get back. It's amazing how awful one's handwriting can become with disuse. Maybe this will be good for me.

I'm exhausted. Good night!