I hope
everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday season with family and friends. My
husband (whom I refer to as Prince Charming or PC) and I had a great time with
our families back in the Pacific Northwest. As I’ve written of before I have
missed family a lot as I have never really been away from them, especially my
little brothers (who aren’t so little anymore), so it was nice to be able to
spend some time with them. We basically spent a week at my family’s house and a
week at my husband’s family’s house. It was so good to see everyone again!
While there
we also had a baby shower as we are expecting in April. We asked for gift cards
since we were traveling by air and wouldn’t have much travel space, but friends
were very generous and in spite of bringing an additional bag ourselves, we
needed to borrow another one from my parents! But we were happy to see a bunch
of old friends and grateful for their generosity.
Getting home
was also an adventure… We were scheduled to come back the Friday before PC
started up classes again, thinking that it would be nice to have a couple days
at home to rest up from our vacation (why is it that I always feel like I need
a vacation after a vacation?) and get used to the 2 hour time change (I feel so
old for saying that). Honestly, weather didn’t even factor into our decision to
come home at that time. Well, let's just say that next year it will! Our flight Friday
morning was cancelled due to the crazy winter weather at home in Chicago, and
the soonest flight they could put us on was Sunday. So back to my parent’s
house for a couple days. Come Sunday morning, and our flight was cancelled
again and the soonest we could get a flight with that airline was Wednesday
night! Well PC was supposed to start school on Monday and didn’t really want to
miss three days of the first week, and by that point we were ready just to be
home (2 weeks of living out of a suitcase is plenty). So we ended up switching
airlines (paying extra of course) and getting a flight that was supposed to
leave later that morning. Then that flight got delayed about 4 times. Finally
though, we arrived home Sunday night, and our good friends picked us up, took
us home, and even brought us dinner! As it happened, PC’s classes on Monday
were cancelled due to the subzero temperatures, which was so nice because we
had an extra day to settle down after all the business. I know I’m probably
just a wimp when it comes to this kind of weather and the complications that
come from it, but growing up in the Pacific Northwest I’ve just never had to
deal with (or even think about) all the difficulties that a harsh winter can bring.
I definitely have a greater respect for all those people who have lived with
them their whole lives.
So needless
to say, next Christmas we’ll be giving ourselves an extra couple days of leeway
at the end of our trip. :-)
