Blessings to you in the New Year!

I'm writing my New Year's post and greetings a few days early. Tomorrow we are headed to Rio de Janeiro! Now, this isn't your usual get-away. Oh no! AND this isn't just a family vacation. Nope! THIS trip is the 'extended family vacation' with Renato's family. Yes, that's right, there are 10 of us going on this trip.

You see, Renato's uncle lives in Rio, and the family has never gone to see him, so they thought now is a great time to go. (I've heard that Rio is the "place" to be for New Years in Brazil....I guess they have a magnificent fireworks display at "Copacabana" one of the famous beaches....yes that's the Barry Manilow song, "at the Copa, Copacabana". That song has been stuck in my head for the past 2 weeks.) So the whole family is going, plus a girlfriend....that makes 10 people. And the really funny part of the whole thing, is that we're going with only 2 cars. And I'm not talking mini-vans, or suburbans here people....I'm talking about TINY (like Ford Escort) sized cars. We're actually driving our car because we have one of those toll-road passes that lets you drive fast through the tolls, and there will be A LOT of tolls to drive through. Oh, and did I mention that the drive time could last anywhere from 6 hours to 10 hours....they're not really sure.

HA! Can you believe that!! I'm sorry, but whenever I think about this trip, I start giggling and laughing. I just can't imagine all of us in these 2 TINY cars for 10 hours. I'm American, so I'm used to what I would now call "luxury" travel. By luxury, I mean a big vehicle with lots of leg room and lots of "bells and whistles"....like a radio. (Cars here don't come with radios...you have to install them yourself, and our care doesn't have one.) I just wanted to give you a picture of the reality of travel here in Brazil, compared to the US. But, I am ready for an adventure!!!

I am looking forward to the trip though. It'll be great to see Rio and see all of the famous spots, like the Christ statue on the hill, and the famous beaches like Ipanema, and Copacabana. AND Renato's uncle only lives 5 minutes away from a really nice, and not so busy beach. Yay! It'll be fun taking Camden there too. Hopefully he'll like the sand this time. We took him to the beach last year when he was a year old, and he didn't really like the sand at all.

So the plan is to leave REALLY early tomorrow morning...like 4AM (yikes!) and travel through the day, so that we can be there for the New Years Eve fireworks. Renato, Camden, and I will be staying at Renato's Uncles house though. The beach and a HUGE party (and I mean HUGE), is not where I'd like to take my almost 2 year old.....or have him stay up until midnight. (I don't even know if I'll make it.) But I'm sure we'll enjoy our New Years Eve at Renato's Uncles house, just the same.

I pray you all have a wonderful and blessed 2009! Wow, it's weird to even just write that, and soon it'll be a reality! I'm sure I'll have lots to blog about and lots of pictures of our trip next week. Happy New Year!!