Christmas 2009

So, the Christmas trip home started with crappy weather. Again. Except this time the weather was in the Midwest--where it should be.

I spent a total of three days in Iowa. It wasn't enough. I spent the first day recovering from the trip there and the day before I left (Christmas Day) getting ready to leave. My flight left at 6:30 in the morning so I had to pack, etc., the night before.

The day I arrived, my brother picked me up at the airport after my ten-hour ordeal at O'Hare. I babbled on about the airport, and we decided to go to the grocery store that night to get hippie food and beer. A winter storm was on it's way. It was raining that night but we both knew that if the rain froze (which is what the weather people were predicting) it would be difficult, if not impossible, to get around town.

So, to Schnuck's we went. Not having the energy or brain power to find anything myself, I asked a guy stocking shelves where to find a few things. Not only did he help me, he became my personal shopper. He asked me what I needed and walked me to each item. it was pretty cool and super nice.

The Brother and I stocked up on beer (Boulevard), went back to the house where I oohhed and aahhed over the addition to the house (because, as he said, he needed that kind of validation). We had some brother-sister bonding time over a late night/early morning beer.

In the past we used to do our bonding on our Christmas Eve trip to the grocery store to get the things my sister-in-law forget to buy. A Christmas Eve trip is usually still necessary, but these days it hasn't been my brother and I--it's usually whoever can get there the fastest. Other bonding sessions have happened while the Brother bought my sister-in-law's present (on Christmas Eve). Actually, that was usually me telling him that his wife really doesn't want a battery pack for her mini TV.

Lately we have bonded on our trips to the Children's Museum. We took the kids to the museum last year and we were going to do that this year--either that or go to Iowa City to see Mom and an old friend of mine from high school... The Brother took the kids the museum but I didn't go along. I slept until almost noon and was busy trying to find my luggage since I gave the luggage claim people the wrong address. Honestly, that whole day is kind of a blur. But my luggage did arrive.

Christmas Eve? Good. Mom did make it. No one was sure since it was supposed to ice up. It never did. Our little corner of Iowa got a lot of rain, not snow. There's a calculation to figure out the rain-snow ration (X inches of rain equals X inches of snow), but I forget what it is. I can tell you that if it had been cold enough to snow we would've measured the snow in feet. So, Mom came over. We went to church. There weren't any gold sneakers or toothbrush blessing this year, but the priest did sing happy birthday to Jesus. When he did the teen-aged kids behind me said, "You can't be serious?" I could feel their eyes roll.

Christmas day included vegan cinnamon rolls, good coffee, and naps. Oh, and reading about the whackadoo who thought it would be a good idea to set his underwear on fire on a Northwest flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. And wondering how this would affect my Northwest flight home.

The flights to and from were a pain in the ass. I really wish I'd had more time with the family. I am close to deciding to do Christmas in March. During the holidays the airports are full of people who normally don't fly and who don't understand that "only two carry ons" does indeed apply to them and not just the person surrounding them.