The Better Late Than Never Post About Christmas

I thought I should write a couple of blog posts about our Christmas trip back to the Midwest before I forget too much about it. 

Because of my unexpected health issues (see previous post), we shortened our trip from almost two weeks to one week. We flew to Kansas City the Sunday after Christmas. Hubby was a sweetie and made arrangements for me to have wheelchair transportation in the Atlanta airport. Have you been through that airport? It's huge! We try to arrange our flights to have 2-3 hours between flights so we don't have to sprint through. We got off the plane in Atlanta, stopped to see where the next gate was and believe it or not, it was ONLY TWO GATES AWAY! That never happens! We didn't wait for the wheelchair. 

As we were waiting for our son at the Kansas City airport, we dug out our winter coats, gloves, sweater...it was COLD! It had been a year since I last wore my heavy winter coat! Son dropped us off at the hotel and picked us up the next morning for brunch. 

We waited until Monday afternoon to pick up at rental car in Son's neighborhood because we discovered we could save close to $500 on the rental! I guess the main difference was not getting it at the airport and paying whatever fees and taxes that are added on there. We also stayed at a hotel 20 minutes from their house (as opposed to 10) because we saved about $80 a night. We were thankful for finding those savings since we incurred some penalties from changing our flights. I counted that as God's grace in the midst of some hard weeks.

Tuesday the Iowa family came to Kansas City. Wednesday, the 30th, was our Christmas Day. Like her mommy on her first Christmas Day, our granddaughter napped during the gift opening time and then got all the attention while she opened her gifts by herself. Oh, who am I kidding? She would have been the center of attention no matter when she opened her gifts! 

Also, like her mommy at her first Christmas, the wrapping paper was the BEST part of the present opening experience.

My wonderful family. I adore every single one of them. 

Our next stop on our trip was my hometown in Iowa. My parents have moved to North Carolina and the things in their house are getting organized for a sale. I'll save the details of our visit to the house my parents have lived in since I was 11 years old for it's own post in a few days. 

January 2nd we were able to help our niece celebrate her wedding day! (I don't have a picture of the bride and groom on my phone. Shoot. They are on my camera, and my laptop STILL doesn't want to stay connected to the Internet properly....ugh.) I'll include the few pictures I have on my phone and were able to upload here. (After a lot of my click-until-I-get-it-method.) 

My family at the reception:

Lydia and Pops:

My father-in-law made a bazillion paper snowflakes to decorate the tables. He loves to do that and is so good at it. Look at how unique they all are! (And this is just our table.) Perfect for a January wedding!

Lydia, Pops are talking to my in-laws:

I snuck in some one-on-one time with sweet Lydia. She is 10 months old and so much fun!

It was hard to say good-bye, but we had a really good week with everyone. In the end, I'm glad we shortened the trip.

The flights home went smoothly and the wheelchair transportation in Atlanta was worth it this time! As I was waiting for our luggage at the airport here in Greenville while Hubby was getting the car, I was struck by his love for me and wrote this on Facebook:

"My husband treats me with love and respect and kindness. I am one very blessed wife."

Truth.