Emily in yellow and Madeleine in green. The family in front of the National Christmas Tree and White House. When it was pointed out who lived in the "big house", Madeleine suggested "go see him and say hi!"This year our Christmas flight left from D.C instead of an airport closer to the house (it was cheaper). We had not planned on incorporating a visit to D.C., but when I realized the National Tree would be lit, etc. we decided to go up. So, we headed up Tuesday after picking up the girls at preschool, saw the National Christmas Tree as well as the menorah and Santa's Workshop that are also on the ellipse. Once again, Madeleine and Emily's favorite part of Washington was riding the metro. Thank you to my friend Laura, who not only agreed to meet us when the forecast still called for snow and/or freezing rain, but braved the public transit system to eat dinner with us at the Union Station food court!
Before leaving for Spokane we had many (many, many) Christmas-related activities at home. Sadly, the Annual Williamsburg Christmas Parade was canceled due to weather (or more accurately the forecast of a little rain and temps as low as the 40s!!). However, Emily and Madeleine were able to make their theatrical debuts as angels in the "Christmas Play" at preschool and we attended Breakfast with Santa. We also visited the "tree maze", otherwise known as a Christmas tree lot and made graham cracker nativity scenes at preschool. Overall, it seems Christmas traditions were at least a partial success on the east coast.
Angel Madeleine
Angel Emily
Saying "Merry Christmas" to the real Christmas trees. Emily in yellow and Madeleine in green.
We of course celebrated Nikolaustag - he brought Pez!!! Emily on the left and Madeleine on the right.
The girls also opened their gifts from each other (as opposed to dragging them back and forth across the country) and some things Oma and Opa sent.
Emily (red) and Madeleine (purple) with their edible nativity scenes.
Emily and Madeleine "helping Santa stand-up so he can look out the window". The suitcases on the coffee table have broken zippers and the cats lounge on them while sunbathing - nothing is too classy for our house!
Madeleine, Santa, Emily
Santa's Workshop's mailroom at the National Tree.
Santa and Madeleine at Santa's Workshop.
Santa and Emily.Anyone who has traveled with me (a small group of brave souls) knows I am compulsively early and rather uptight (more so than usual). I also prefer at least a two hour connection when traveling with two four-year-olds. This year I had to book a 90 minute connection and was not at all pleased when Delta later emailed to say that the itinerary had changed and the connection was now one hour.
Wednesday morning dawned and we left the hotel at 5AM. We arrived at Dulles, parked the car and began walking...and walking...and walking (I think the distance from the garage to the counter is where we lost time). By the time we got to the Delta counter and found a representative who would deign to put the checked luggage tag on our two suitcases (We had checked in online and paid for the bags in advance and online...literally all they had to do was put on a big sticker - lost more time.) and made it to security I was about 70% convinced we'd miss our 7AM flight...However, I have to hand it to TSA at Dulles. That line moved and we were through in no time (They were great in October when we flew to Germany as well). Had it been Spokane's TSA folks with a line that long - we'd still be standing there. We got on the plane, were taxiing to the runway and were told we were number three in line for take-off.
Then we stopped. Then the flight attendants all clustered around one row of passengers. Then we flipped a U-turn. The captain came on and announced we were heading back to the gate because of a "medical emergency". Madeleine burst into tears and I thought about joining her. Big picture - it wasn't any of us who were being taken to the waiting ambulance. Self-serving perspective....we just missed our one hour connection and what are the odds of actually being seated together when/if we get on the next flight.
The passenger was taken off the plane, paperwork was filled out, we headed to the runway again and off we went. Thankfully, Delta padded their schedule enough, that even with an hour delay, we landed only 15 minutes late. We were looking at the map of the Salt Lake City airport and knew if we would be in the same gate area, we'd be okay...if not - we'd be stuck. So, we checked www.delta.com while in flight (free on Delta flights FYI) and I guess our guardian angels were working overtime because we not only had perfect weather all the way across the country (so, no additional delays), we landed at gate D10 and the connecting flight left from D12.
It was a "fast" travel day for us - 10 hours after leaving the hotel we were touching down in Spokane. While it is much nicer than the usual 16 hour travel days we encounter (extra time from getting to the airport super-early and having long connections), I'm not sure it was worth the increase in blood pressure.
