Merry Christmas

I hope you are all where you want to be with the people you want to be with … because it is Christmas Eve!

I had Monday and Tuesday to finish up our packing and prepare for our departure.  Nancy and Marena both stopped over on Monday for visits. And I had my nails done Tuesday.  Tom and Susan on Sunday suggested we come to their house Wednesday so we would be close to the south airport and not try to navigate the interstate from one end of town to the other at rush hour since our flight was a little before 8 o’clock.  

We left at 1:00 and it took a half hour to go under 5 miles until we passed our mall.  After that it was smooth sailing.  We arrived right after 2:00 and left to have lunch, when we returned we visited until about 5:30 when we left.  Traffic was light to the airport, the shuttle bus actually stopped and backed up to pick us up, and TSA was just a 5 minute wait.  We were at the gate way in advance.  

Our flight was full but we traveled exactly on schedule.  We gathered our things at baggage claim, went upstairs to Departures which was empty at 11:00 and met Kara and Bill parked at the curb with no one else around,  

Kristin was due in so we waited just a bit in the cell lot and then gathered her up in the same way and headed for Troy, it was 2:30 before went to bed.  

Thursday was CeCe day!  It snowed a bit while at Kelly’s but it was warm inside with all that love.

She loves Grammie’s house and has the run of the family room when she stays!  She is talking more and can be a bit dramatic.  There is a small step down into the family room and her entrance is to jump, fling her arms out with a loud "Tada" and then clap for herself.  She especially likes cookies.  She is never "standoffish" around us.  She has 12 grandparents and we had to find a "different" name for her to call us since so many were already taken. We settled on Lolly and Pop but she says Pops! 

Kara had us all for dinner but a good bit of it came from Picano’s restaurant.  She had so much made already for the holidays - cookies, bread, dips, peeled vegetables, dishes out, etc.  

And she wrapped every present I sent here and there were plenty.  

Christmas Eve we worked on getting ready for Christmas dinner, finished up the gift envelope stuff and prepared for Friday dinner just for us to be followed by Mass at 7 p.m.