Holiday wrap up

As with any other Christmas holiday, I went down to Florida to spend it with my family. It was a wonderful week, but not without its bumps. Everyone came down, which was great. I was headed down first. Everything seemed fine and was right on schedule. I think I jinxed myself by updating my facebook page w/ my flight status, b/c soon after we were told there was a maintenance problem w/ the plane and that we would have to leave the plane. We waited for a bit and then were told that there was another plane coming in that we could use and that we were to go to another gate and stand in line to wait so we could be checked in again. That was a mad dash! Anyway, all was good. We got a new plane. I was upgraded to first class (more 1st class seats on this plane). We finally took off about 2 hours late, getting me in around 1:30.

The next day, my dad thought he was flying to West Palm, but the lady who booked the reservation messed up and he flew to Ft. Lauderdale instead. I drove down to pick him up. Eric got in on time, but we still had to go pick him up. The next day (Christmas) we get a call from my sister. She and Andrew were not on the same plane and he had already taken off to Tampa and then to West Palm. Turns out she was bumped and no one volunteered to give up their seat. So, here was my sister, stuck at the airport w/ two kids under 5, and Andrew had the car keys! They eventually booked her on a flight thru Orlando and then to Ft. Lauderdale. So, I went to West Palm to get her bag when her original flight was scheduled to arrive. I then drove to Ft. Lauderdale to pick her up. Luckily, the girls were angels and in good spirits. When told of the new travel plans, Alex exclaimed, "Today must be my lucky day." My sister asked how come and Alex replied, "because I get to fly on TWO planes today!" Too funny! At one point the girls were at the window waving goodbye to their plane.

So, we all made it and had a good time. I just uploaded my photos and didn't get as many as I would have liked of the family since I was using my new camera and didn't take it out w/ me. Leah was the easiest to get pictures of. She just turned to the camera and said CHEESE. Alex, on the other hand, just ran away or hid. She's like my grandmother that way.



Leah had a blast at the beach and at the pool. She would scream when we took her away. She went back and forth b/w the baby pool and the big pool. It was so cute.




I made the girls their Hanukkah presents this year. I'll post more info about the items themselves in another post, but for now, here are the girls w/ their presents.



Of course, the week wouldn't be complete w/o issues on my return flight as well. There were weather issues in Philly, so my plane was delayed 2 hours. Luckily I checked the flight status so I could hang out at the apartment until just before my flight departure. I also ran into Katie and the girls at the airport, so that was a nice treat.

Because of the delays out of Philly, we were quickly ushered onto our flight. So quickly that there were a few still coming off the plane as we lined up on the jet way to get on the plane. As we boarded, the flight attendants urged us to find our seats and stow our bags quickly. We only had a short window -- 10 minutes -- to board and take off before we missed our window. The flight crew was great at making sure that we got on the plane quickly. We made the window and took off just before my sister's plane. Luckily, we weren't forced to circle in Philly. They weren't kidding about the weather and the low visibility. When we came out of the clouds, we landed w/in 2 minutes! It was definitely an interesting flight.