Skip to main content

Christmas Trip - Part 4 - Coming Home

Well, thankfully, the trip home was much less stressful then the trip to Michigan.

We arrived at the airport with plenty of time to check in. We were a little worried to see that we did not have seats assigned for our second flight, but hoped that would all work out at the gate.  After getting our terrified 3 year old through security, we had time to wait and eat breakfast at the airport. We departed just a bit late, but the quick flight to Chicago is always nice.

We arrived at the gate for our next flight in Chicago and were greeted by the gate agent. "You must be the Talen family." We were surprised, but she handed us our boarding passes for the rest of the trip and said we had been upgraded to the Economy Plus seating for the next flight. We asked how she knew it was us and she said that she knew she had an infant who needed a seat, so Mataya was the give away for her.

Flight to Newark was fine, but a little interesting. This is the flight were the passenger would not switch seats with us. But the ladies on either side of me where really nice and Mataya did sleep for a little bit.

We had a quick connection in Newark, but made it to the gate without a problem. We quick tried to get a bite to eat and use the restroom. Joash needed a change of clothes after that. And after all the hurrying, our flight was delayed a bit. They later told us it was delayed because someone had gotten sick on flight over, so they spent extra time cleaning the plane. We all said thank you.

We had the exact same flight attendant from Newark to Halifax that we had on our Halifax to Newark flight, so that was sort of fun. This was the only flight that Joash slept on all day, which was a blessing, since it was the one flight that I had to sit next to him with Wilbert across the aisle. Lap infants can only be in certain places on a plane, so it had to be like this. So, I was thankful both kids slept and Wilbert kept my hand filled with trail mix.

We arrived in Halifax, but one of our checked bags did not. Praise the Lord that the one that did arrive was the most important as it contained Joash's bunny, tag blanket and tractor that he sleeps with every night. We got back to our car, which was in the middle of a huge slush puddle. And part of the puddle had managed to find its way inside our car. So the drivers side floor was soaked and is now currently frozen as it has been extremely cold here on the Island. But the car started and we were able to drive out of the puddle without a problem. Wilbert has since determined that a drain plug is missing on the underside of the car, so we will replace that soon.

After a quick supper at Tim Horton's we drove back on lovely, clear roads. And our missing bag arrived the next evening, so all is well.

So all in all, a great trip. I do miss my home in Michigan and my family, but it is nice to be back in my Island home (especially in the crazy weather we are having today!).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Perspective

I have already mentioned my "Word of the Day" screen saver that I have on my laptop that is hooked up to the projector in my room. I am learning that the words go in cycles a bit, so the same word will pop up in several classes during the day. Today's popular word was "entitlement." A fantastic word to share with teenagers who often think they are entitled to a whole lot of stuff. In fact, we as humans often think we are entitled to a whole lot of stuff when really we are fallen people who deserve nothing but death. We so often miss how wonderful and blessed our life really is and we get caught up on the little things. This video sort of puts that in perspective in a rather humorous way. I am by no means promoting this comedian, but if you take what he says to heart, it is so true. We live in an amazing world, created by an amazing God. We really should be happy with the blessing we have been given.

An Afternoon at the Park

I am not a mom who spends a lot of time at parks and playgrounds with her kids. This is for several reasons.  1) I have to drive to any park and we all know packing up everyone in the car takes a bit of extra effort 2) Joash doesn't have a really good relationship with playground equipment yet. In the past, he has never wanted to go and explore a playground structure on his own, he didn't really like to swing and he didn't really like slides. So, that kind of limits the amount of fun one can have at a play ground. Why would I drive somewhere to have my kid pretty much want to just sit on my lap the whole time. We can do that at home. 3) Joash doesn't do well when there are too many unfamiliar kids around. Yeah, he is a bit shy and timid. So, he doesn't really like to go on anything that another kid is using. And if he is on something and another kid comes over, he gets off right away and runs to me. But, a new year has come and I thought we should try out...

American Thanksgiving

One nice thing about being from two different countries is that we can celebrate more holidays. And since there are a few more people from the states here, last night we had our own American Thanksgiving feast. There were six couples and all of the wives and two of the husbands were from the States. So the Americans out numbered the Canadians, which doesn't happen very often. And we had a feast. There was turkey, ham, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, bread, stuffing and three different kinds of pies for dessert and a pumpkin cake. It was wonderful. And the fellowship was great too. The hosts said there was no assigned seating, so the ladies all sat together at one of the table and guys at the other. It was funny how it worked out, but we had great conversations full of laughter. It was a great way to celebrate a holiday. Hopefully we have started our own tradition here.