Home for the holidays!

I have to admit this last Sunday I was feeling a little bummed. My schedule for work through the holidays was a little less than ideal. I was scheduled to be on reserve 9am to 9pm Sunday through Thanksgiving day. Then I would have two days off and be back on reserve Sunday morning at 9am. I knew that because I only had two days off there would be no way for me to go home for the holidays. Then the best thing happened. I was assigned a trip that started on Monday and ended on Thanksgiving at 11:20am. I was also assigned a trip for the following Sunday night. In essence this gave me Thanksgiving afternoon through Sunday off. Plenty of time to get home. This is a tender mercy of the Lord.

Brandon met me at the airport. We were trying to make a 12:30 flight out of LAX. I was released from work at 11:30 which left me an hour to catch the flight to WA. You would think that this would leave plenty of time. I had to get from terminal 8 to terminal 5 to purchase a standby ticket for Brandon. Brandon was at terminal 3 trying to get checked in...they wouldn't let him until he had his standby ticket. By now it was 40 minutes to departure and they told him they weren't allowed to check people in beyond 40 minutes. Since when? He wasn't even checking any bags. Needless to say I was sprinting from terminal 5 to terminal 3. I was in uniform with my luggage practically knocking people over. The woman checked him in. When we arrived at the gate the agent gave me a hard time for not being checked in. I had listed for the flight and checked in with the lady at the ticket counter which is far more than I usually do. When you are jumpseating all you have to do is arrive at the gate and show them your passport, license, and company ID. Then they just look you up and issue you a seat. I don't know why everyone was making it so complicated. Luckily we made it on board. We caught a connecting flight in Seattle to Pasco and my parents picked us up. Neither of us had eaten all day so we were pretty grateful to have a plate a food saved for us at home. Nothing beats grandma's rolls.

I am so thankful to be home for even just a few days. We have eaten some great food, watched a few movies (Hancock at home and Twilight at the theater), watched some football, been in the hot tub, had a salad from Dana's, been to Wal-Mart twice, went to Danielle Andre's (Baker) baby shower (so fun to see a lot of people I haven't for a while), and spent some time with Grandma who even hooked me up with my Christmas ornament. Oh ya and the boys went shooting for a while.

I have to admit I really miss having Thanksgiving and Christmas with my Aunts, Uncles, cousins, grandma and grandpa. We were so blessed being able to spend the holidays all together growing up.