We left about 11:00 for the airport on Christmas Eve. I had made a reservation at the Parking Spot and it is a good thing. "Lot Full" greeted us but "Except For Reservations" underneath that. We parked undercover in Row 1.
There was no traffic to speak of driving there and NO ONE IN LINE at TSA Pre-Check so by 12:15 we were on our concourse where we ate lunch at Chik Fil A. We left on time and arrived in Chicago then walked past 38 gates! to our next flight that also left on time. We had comfortable seats and arrived in Detroit right on time. Since we carried our bags we met Kara at the Departure drop off versus dealing with everyone else getting picked up at Baggage Claim. There was no one departing at 8:30 but lots of folks and traffic going into Arrivals.
By 9:45 we parked easily and walked into church where we found an entire row open for the six of us.
It was a beautiful Mass and homily. We saw many friends on our way out. I love our old parish. Back home it was time for bed once I bagged the few presents I had brought with me.
Next morning was not chaotic since the kids are 12 and 14, but messy nonetheless. Once we opened all the gifts, we needed to get ready for our company and dinner. We had 16 coming and Kara had everything set up before we even arrived.
Our oldest daughter Kelly and her family came, Sue, a friend of Bill and Kara's, our friends Gus and Melissa who brought Billy, a U of M student from Bejing who is spending Christmas break with them. The young men are all engineers so talk flowed easily. The older folks discussed mostly traveling and real estate.
It was about 9:00 when only family remained and we had another round of gift giving. By midnight we were shooing the hanger-ons out the door.
Kelly had her husband's family Christmas Eve and had some beef tenderloin left. Kara had pork tenderloin left. So the plan was to put the leftovers in crockpots with BBQ sauce, do some returns at the mall and then go back to Kelly's to mess up her house! The kids entertained themselves in the basement with all their new technology toys and Nerf guns. And adults just rested round the dining room table. It was another late night and I went right to bed when we got home.
We did virtually nothing on Tuesday. It was nice to just sit and relax. I did help Morgan iron her pearl beads to make her Undertales characters. She did a great job because attention to detail plus counting is involved.
Bill's company had a lunch for the employees on Tuesday that Bill was in charge of and he brought trays and trays of leftovers home so Kelly's tribe came back one more time. What I did forget to do was check in with Southwest!
The kids played a game where you wear a mouthpiece and try to talk so people understand. They had a great time.
We were up early and Kara asked if I had checked in. Yikes! What a thing to forget on Southwest. When I did, we had B and C boarding and Ted did not get TSA pre-check. Not sure why. Gus, Melissa and Billy picked us up at 11:00 to head to the airport. We stopped at Andiamo's, a pretty high end restaurant in Dearborn, for an early lunch. I ordered the chopped salad and midway through found a large piece of Saran Wrap in it. I showed it to the waitress and she apologized profusely. It wasn't anything disgusting or dirty, just the wrapping of one of the items pre-measured for the salad, so I continued eating. Eventually the manager came out and comped the whole lunch. We said we understood how it could happen and thanked him for his gesture. Good business!
Security was not crowded and Ted went through the regular one and I just watched him and waited until he came out. Our flight to Chicago was fine and so was our flight into Houston. Despite checking in late we had decent seats on both flights. The bus for parking was right outside and in no time we were on our way home.
Thursday was catch up day. I handled the mail, updated the Christmas card list, paid the charges off (ouch!), unpacked and did three loads of laundry after changing the sheets on our bed and got my clothes ready for taking to the trailer. The kids gave me new everyday dishes and they arrived today from Bed, Bath and Beyond. So I packed up the old ones and still do not know just where their new home will be. There are a couple of possibilities.
Today I will start getting the food together. We pretty much empty the pantry, freezer and refrigerator. Ted plugged the trailer in yesterday and tomorrow we move it to the park so we can load up. And another year will begin.
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