Holiday reset

At long last the end of holidays is near. Tonight is the final gift exchange my family will have and I can’t wait until it is over. This year was very exciting for me because it was the first year since Eric and I have split up that I had the kids wake up with me on Christmas day. Happily I was able to get Liana an American Girl Doll which she has begged for, prayed for and tried everything under the sun for the last few years. Kevin asked for only one thing and I was able to get that for him. Zachary didn’t want anything except a new guitar, which his dad got for him, so hopefully the things I did get him made him happy. The younger kids were very funny and woke up about 4:00 in the morning. I told them they could get their stockings but they were NOT allowed to wake the rest of us up until 6:30. After all I was up with Jeff until 1:30 in the morning because he spent all day in the garage custom building a cradle for Liana’s doll and a rack for Kevin’s fishing polls. At about 5:00 Liana crawled into bed with me and about the time we fell back to sleep Kevin came busting in begging us to get up because it was CHRISTMAS!!!!!

So we got up.

I had the kids help make cinnamon rolls and coffee while everyone else woke up and finally we opened gifts. It was a lot of fun and we found ways to drag it out so it wasn’t over in just a couple of minutes. In fact the kids dad called them and they were still busy unwrapping.

After breakfast the kids had to go back to their dads and I headed off to the airport. My friend Andie bought me a plane ticket to come spend a long weekend with her. Originally I was to fly down and drive back with her to NY, but plans changed and I flew in and out. It was wonderful. The weather was in the 80’s everyday, the sky blue and the wind warm. The nice thing about Andie and I is that we have fun no matter what we are doing. We drove around and saw points of interest in her area and we laughed so hard. Friday we went to the beach and walked in the water. Then we took this boat tour of the gulf and saw movie star homes but the really cool thing was the dolphins that swam with our boat. Saturday we went to a flea market that is the size of 2 ½ football fields. It was cool and I got some nice gifts for everyone. Later that night we went on a dinner cruise and that was fun.

Sunday morning I had to leave her house at 4:00 in the morning and catch a 6am flight to JFK. I got stopped at security and they rifled through one of my bags. Andie had sent gifts home for everyone and inside of them were these cute little “Florida Snowmen” that contained unidentifiable liquid. They took them all but one. In the process they ripped the bags the gifts were in and had my underclothes laying out on the table. The rest of the trip was uneventful I until I got to JFK. I found the terminal printed on my boarding pass and was confused because it listed another flight. I asked the guy there and he told me my ticket had been printed wrong and I should run because the flight to Buffalo was boarding. I ran to the other side of the airport only to find out that the flight was delayed due to high winds knocking out power to the airport in Buffalo. So I waited. They kept delaying the flight by 15 minutes. Finally at 2:15 they announced the flight was canceled and we should go to customer service for redirect.

Once it was my turn the guy told me I had two options. I could try for the last flight to Buffalo for the day, which was booked and had 20 people on standby or I could try for the morning. I asked him about Rochester and he asked me if I could run. There was one last flight to Rochester and it was boarding right then. And it was at the other end of the airport. So I ran. On my way to the terminal I called Jeff and asked him if he could pick me up.

Everything was going great until we neared Rochester. Then the winds picked up. I felt the plane swaying from side to side. As we tried to land we missed and had to circle around and try again. The plane was going up and down just like a rollercoaster as well as going side to side. I thought for sure as we neared the runway one of the wings was going to hit. Had I eaten anything for breakfast or lunch I am sure I would have lost it. When we landed the plane erupted in applause just like on the movies. My hands were shaking so hard and my heart was thumping in my chest. As soon as they told us it was ok to use cell phones I called Jeff who immediately told me he watched my plane land and he “thought I was a goner.” He said the plane was sideways in the air as it landed. He told me he was afraid I wouldn’t make it. I laughed and told him if he thought he was scared he should have been on the plane.

All ended well and looking back it doesn’t seem as bad as it did when I was on the plane and it doesn’t dim the exciting time I had in Florida. I would get back on the plane today and fly back down. I’m so grateful to Andie for giving me a much needed vacation. I feel like my reset button was hit and life is good again.

I am looking forward to the new year and everything it brings. My one big resolution this year is to get healthy. I will do it this year and I will not get in my own way!!!