We arrived home safe and sound yesterday morning about 9:30am. We all slept the entire flight from Honolulu-Seattle, then had an hour or so to wait for our connecting flight, crossing our fingers that all would go well. Just as we were about to board, we were told that there was limited visibility in Vancouver due to fog and that if they couldn't land the plane safely, we would end up back in Seattle. There were many groans throughout the gate area. Apparently, several people on that flight had been stuck in Seattle for two days. I thought back to when we were originally supposed to fly home - Sunday. Had we continued with that original flight, we would have been stuck in Seattle for two days yet again, so I was thanking my lucky stars that we had postponed it a day.
It was definitely foggy and we couldn't see a thing until about 5 minutes before landing, but I suppose that's all we needed because we landed. There was applause from throughout the plane. I was SO happy - so tired and didn't want to go through the whole 'getting stuck somewhere' thing.
We arrived home to the cats safe and sound (thanks to my brother who fed and watered them while we were gone, plus pooper scooped). We were exhausted - even though we slept on the plane, it's not like a real sleep. The kidlet had her head on Dean's lap and she kicked the crap out of me the entire flight (yet I still managed to sleep because before I knew it, we were landing). So we took it easy. We actually watched a movie on tv before even getting up to put away the stuff in the suitcases. Then I had to go through all the Christmas presents under the tree and put them away.
The kidlet cleaned up this Christmas as usual. On Christmas Eve at the in-laws, she got a couple pairs of shoes from Dean's Dad, a bunch of preschool workbooks, another stuffed cat & cat book, a bead set for making bracelets, a saucer-type sled with mittens, scarf & hat, a couple bathing suits - a little of everything, basically. She got the Screamin' Banshee and mini-cars that she had been begging for for months, a Furreal cat that purrs and kneads and meows, a book, a Wii game (Endless Ocean, which she hasn't really gotten into yet), and a finger puppet kit. Dean and I were only supposed to spend a minimal amount this year due to the fact we were going to Hawaii, so I bought him the Alien Quadrilogy on DVD and he bought me (us) a portable DVD player and a portable hard drive (which I'll be returning as my parents also bought me one and I don't really need it to be 'portable').
We hung out here for a couple hours then headed in the snow to my parent's place, where we were ALL spoiled. It was crazy. But so so great. The kidlet got TinkerToys (grrrr for the clean up aspect), the Diego railroad, a magnifying glass (which she has been whining for since she lost her old one), another Wii game (she likes that one better as it's for ages 6+), a DVD (Brave Little Toaster sequel - who knew?) plus a little K'nex set and plastic tool set (Home Depot-style) from my brother. Not only did we get the new fridge before Christmas (I love my new fridge), Dean and I got iPod Touches (so excited I squealed) includng a charger set, new pots, new cutlery (I think my parents have basically bought everything in our kitchen by this point), a 640gb hard drive (to back up all the thousands of photos I have on our computer), the clothes we bought when we went shopping a few weeks before, a Wii game, books, to name a few (because I'm a bit sleepy and blanking out a bit). Plus, Mom published my blog into 3 hard-bound books. All the posts dating back to when I started here in June 2004 to February 2007. Hundreds of pages of text (year 1 = 159, year 2 = 242, and year 3 = 191 pages) including photos. How awesome is that?? There are even Tables of Contents in each book. It must have taken her forever with all the cutting and pasting and reading. Apparently book 4 will not be as big because I've, ahem, slowed down a bit in the posting department. Oh well, c'est la vie. At least I'm getting something down!
So yeah, it was a VERY Merry Christmas. And we didn't even have a heck of a lot of time to play with our stuff. The kidlet made up for it yesterday as she played with every single thing while I cleaned and tidied and did laundry and Dean went for groceries (our cupboards were Really Bare).
I'm a little late, but Happy New Year to you all and best wishes for 2009!!
Book 4 will end up almost as big as book 2 because it will have 2 years worth of your blog. I am already at page 213 so it will depend on how wordy you get over the next month.....ggg. Will you get a book 5, well this will depend on you. Keira is going to love reading about herself in years to come. Not many kidlets will have this kind of information, you did good.
Posted by: Mom | January 08, 2009 at 12:12 AM