The wonders of travel

30 December 2008, 11:33 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Random

I am back from another trip now. I’ve traveled a lot this year, and all of it by air, which is unusual for me. Trips to Utah in May, July, and December. A trip to Austin in September. And the most recent was a trip to Indiana just now.

Just a few thoughts on this last trip. When I got to the airport in Tucson to leave, there were two major delays American Airlines was dealing with. One was their flight to Chicago, which I believe was because of weather (an ice storm was slamming the area). The other was my particular flight to Dallas (mechanical trouble in LA).

While I was in line to check in, I watched a woman have a conversation with the agent. This woman apparently wanted to get to Chicago (which wasn’t going to happen because of the weather). The woman explained that her husband was a member of the platinum club, so they needed to be taking extra good care of her. And then she explained that she was even being nice because she wasn’t yelling. Lady, if you have to explain that you are being nice, you aren’t. And while you weren’t raising your voice, you were in essence yelling. I don’t know what happened to her.

They gave me the option of going back home and trying again in the morning, or getting to Dallas, staying in a hotel for the night, and then leaving for Indianapolis first thing in the morning. I opted to at least make it to Dallas. One other flight to Dallas left before ours did, and we left only minutes before the third Dallas flight of the day did, making a 2.5 hour delay for me. I definitely missed my connection. But I got to spend almost 7 hours in a $250 a night suite on American Airlines bill, and they gave me $15 in food vouchers which I used for a pretty good breakfast the next morning at the airport. Should it concern me that when I went through security in Dallas the next morning I forgot to take out my quart zip lock bag of liquids and nobody noticed? And nobody noticed again when I forgot in Indianapolis on my way home?

The flight home was uneventful. We actually landed in Dallas (I had layovers there in both directions) 20 minutes early. But there was a plane at our gate waiting to have it’s toilets serviced and they’d been waiting for half an hour already. Half an hour later they still hadn’t moved (so glad I wasn’t on that plane), and they sent us to a new gate.

I arrived in Phoenix only a few minutes late, we got our luggage and started driving. We got outside of Phoenix when my wheels really started to scare me, so we stopped and checked them. They weren’t flat, but we thought we should maybe check the lug nuts anyway. And those were loose. I was amazed at how loose the front wheels were. Scary! We drove slow on the drive home, just to be safe. Everyone passed us, but it didn’t bother me. I don’t need to be the fastest car on the road. After the New Year holiday I’ll take my car in and make sure the wheels are on good.42D

And thus is the story of my last trip of 2008.

At least my trip wasn’t as bad as this guys – “Dear American Airlines“

Share your thoughts

Homemade

27 December 2008, 11:22 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things, Quilting/Sewing/Knitting/Crafting

It’s no secret that the economy isn’t doing that great this year. So it was with interest that I read a few articles and things on the internet about how going “green” for Christmas and making your own gifts would be a good choice (Christmas comes home, The handmade Christmas, The case for shopping).

The idea is not foreign to me. I have always, always made my Christmas gifts. Different pieces might be store bought, but the main part is always homemade. It was part of the fun of the approaching season to figure out what to make for my family and then how I was going to do it when I was growing up. Starting around November you learned to knock if a bedroom door was closed because the person on the other side was most likely working on presents. For me my most memorable gifts have been the ones I spent a lot of time making for a person and then watching their reaction on Christmas morning.

I think making gifts is the best way to go.

But I must be doing it wrong because it’s not cheap. As I was finishing up the three blankets, two scarves, stuffed animal, running bag, heat bags, “paper” doll kit, kitchen set, calendar, yo-yo ornaments… it would’ve been much much easier, and cheaper, if I’d just gone to the store and grabbed something.

But it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun, and hardly as meaningful, as the weeks and months I spent figuring out what would be the perfect piece of my heart to make for those who are dear in my life.

Share your thoughts

Christmas Morning

25 December 2008, 8:15 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Questions

I’m curious just how strange my family is.

It was almost noon before we were all up to open presents at our house today. And this isn’t unusual. And it isn’t something that happens now because we are all grown. We never woke up while it was still dark to open presents. Getting up at 8am was early for us. My parents were able to get up, get dressed, and then sit around and wait for all of us to get up, always. I remember one Christmas that was on a Sunday and we had to open presents after church because we didn’t get up soon enough to do it before. And we never snooped or tried to figure out what the presents were either. We were super excited about Christmas morning, but if we can sleep in, we’re going to sleep in.

So my question to the internet this evening – what time was everyone up at your house this morning? What time is a typical wake up time on Christmas morning at your house?

3 Shared thoughts

Merry Christmas

25 December 2008, 10:03 am by Giggles
Categories: Family, Gospel, Happy Things

I am truly blessed to have so many good friends and to have such a great family. I cannot count my blessings, there are too many. Yet my greatest blessings are because of Him whose birth we are celebrating.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:14)

Share your thoughts

For my mom

24 December 2008, 12:12 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things

My mom loves to track Santa on NORAD. Here is the link for any of the rest of you. You can see where he’s been and even some video they’ve caught of him flying around famous spots on the globe.

NORAD Tracks Santa 2008

As of this posting he is in Kirov, Russia. So there is still time to finish up the last minute preparations for Santa here.

1 Shared thought

Christmas Past

23 December 2008, 3:00 pm by Giggles
Categories: Gospel, Happy Things, Remembers

Sunday I pulled out some of my Christmas CDs to listen to while I cooked dinner. My favorite is one that you cannot buy in a store and that there are probably less than 500 copies in existence. It was made in 2000. Now that was a Christmas to remember.

For Christmas 2000 I was in Brasil on my mission. It was my second Christmas as a missionary and I was feeling very at home in Brasil by that point. The mission had organized a large mission choir that was going to be performing at various places around town the month of December. I had planned to be a part of it, but was transfered out of Curitiba to Ponta Grossa in October. I was training a new companion and it was going to be her first Christmas in Brasil. She’d arrived in the mission the day before Thanksgiving.

As December progressed we’d been asking everyone what their Christmas plans were as a point of discussion. So many of the people we talked to were having different problems and were not looking forward to a wonderful holiday. We decided we could do something to help. I had discovered that the majority of people liked my sugar cookies, so we decided to take everyone a plate of cookies. We used all our sugar plus the more we bought making them. We spent all of the 24th and 25th pretty much delivering cookies, not even sure when we were going to fit in phone calls home. We did get the calls in though.
I had a few things in a package from home so we decorated my tiny tree and I put out some gifts for my companion before she woke up. It was fun to do that for her.

That day was a Monday, which in the mission meant district meetings. So we went to that in the morning, just like always. There was nobody else on the bus. We wished the bus driver a Merry Christmas. For our meeting that morning we went to the hospital and went to all the floors and sang Christmas songs. For 12 guys and 2 girls, we didn’t sound half bad. It was a wonderful way to spend Christmas morning. When I sing those hymns I think of that morning.

The Christmas CD I like listening to is the music from the mission choir that year. I was not a part of it, but some of my dear friends were (Balsters, Lindsey). And when I listen to that CD, I remember that Christmas.

It’s just not Christmas without those songs. And I’ll often listen to some of the songs during the year too.

I’ll have to see if I can scan in some pictures from that Christmas later.

Share your thoughts

Favorite Gift

20 December 2008, 11:40 pm by Giggles
Categories: Family, Happy Things

I didn’t specify any gift as a favorite I received as a child in my last post, but I do have a favorite gift. Except it wasn’t a gift I received and I wasn’t a child.

When I was in high school my mom got real sick. She asked me to help her with her Christmas shopping and told me there was a music tape (yes, this was before CDs) that she wanted to give Dad for Christmas and asked me to get it for her.

In high school I was more in to music and I went to the music store a lot. My dad said there was a music tape he wanted to give Mom for Christmas and asked me to pick it up for him on one of my trips to the music store.

On Christmas morning they saw a present under the tree that I’d wrapped and put a tag on it that said “To: Mom & Dad, From: Mom & Dad.”

They’d both asked me to get the exact same tape.

I think that’s my favorite Christmas gift story. For now. I have a lot of favorite stories of making presents for my family. But I don’t know that I’ll ever forget the year my parents wanted to get each other the exact same thing.

1 Shared thought