plesantish holiday thusfar

Survived church.

The priest, although apparently quite academic, sounded like a robot every time he read something out loud...each syllable was very distinct, if not natural.

Dinner and drinks with the family. Traditional Ukrainian Borscht and Perogies.

More drinks and a round of spinner. Fun game.

It's late and I'm ripping cds onto a portable hard drive...had a lot of cds from my high school days and I guess I'd like more of them on MP3. Too heavy and awkward to bring all that plastic over to Washington.

I'm excited for Christmas morning, but this is the first time (ever?) where I'm more excited about how my parents will like the gifts I got for them rather than the stuff I'm hoping to receive. I know I should have had this epiphany at an earlier age, but the past MANY christmases post-college for me have all been abroad and away from family...so this is different.

going to church for christmas

I suppose it might look bad if I'm playing with a Nintendo DS throughout the proceedings?

(I think I already know the answer here, but I'm hoping someone can come up with an amazing rationalization that somehow has escaped me...I've been trying though...)

more travel infoz

So our Monday morning flight (already rescheduled) got canceled; luckily Northwest airlines ended up getting two spare 747s over to help clean up the mess of stranded Seattle travelers from this weekend...so; we got on a flight that was supposed to leave at 2pm.

2 hours of delays later, we finally took off...

Then, once touching down in -2 degree weather in MN, the gate we landed at did not have an operator so we were stuck in the plane for an extra 20 minutes until that got resolved.

Happy to be out of the plane & at home with the family now.

Big thanks to the NW airlines flight crew that opted to do a little extra work and help people rather than start their vacations early.

snowed in....again

Was supposed to fly out to Minnesota today.

However, the weather was not cooperative. Flight cancelled. :(

So, our parking lot looks like a christmas card - would rather be hanging out with friends and family, but I guess if I have to settle, then a picturesque, if not driver-friendly, outdoors at home in our warm-ish apartment with our cats isn't too bad.