Sam's Blog

Santa, Part II...

OK... We never did make it back to the mall to get pictures of the kids with Santa.

Sactown...and back...
...in 48-hours (maybe, a little more). We left Seattle at on Christmas Eve morning. We arrived in Sacramento at noon. We loaded up the rental and zipped up to El Dorado Hills to celebrate with Lisa's family. It was fun and LOUD. The kids had a blast with Jake and Kylie, and the grandkids - Adrienna, Matias, and Adam Jr. (Avangaline was there too). That gave Lisa and I a little time to socialize. Lisa was very happy that she could spend time with AJ and Adam.

We left El Dorado Hills at around 5 or so and headed to check in to our hotel. We settled into our hotel room at around 6:30 - exhausted. We planned to meet up with Tony and Jennifer but we just couldn't get out. The kids were starting to get cranky too. In hindsight, we probably would have been better off getting the kids out again. Neither of them slept very well and they kept Lisa an I up all night too. Oh...and we were pretty disappointed that our mini-suite didn't have separate rooms so we could relax in one while the kids slept in the other...

On Christmas, we spent the day with my family. We headed over to Jay's house at 10. I was pleasantly surprised that Bob, Fredine, and Maylin (sp?) were able to make the trip down from Yreka. Aly and Mitch immediately opened their presents and started playing away. The kids had a great time with grandma, auntie Lisa, and auntie Paula. Mitch even went hunting for grandma. When he found her he said "Hi. C'mon, let's play." They also enjoyed the Pez candy that they got - a lot of it... At home, 4 M&Ms is about the most candy they get. There was no way we would be able to get all the presents home without buying several more pieces of luggage. Luckily, Paula offered to ship the presents to us. The kids can't wait...

We headed into Davis in the early afternoon to see Michele, Andy, Nick, and Jessica. The kids opened presents and played for awhile and we socialized. We hung out for as long as we could before we had to head out to Dixon. We tried to reach Tony again but he was in Rancho Cordova. We tenatively set something up for the evening - but we both had busy schedules.

We went to Butch and Melody's house in Dixon for Christmas dinner. There was a good turnout and an appropriate ratio of meat, starches, and vegetables - 3 meats, 3 starches, and 2 vegetables...come to think of it, that's one veggie too many... There was quite a spread of snacks too. Butch pulled out his fancy wine opener which does a nice job of pushing the corks down into the bottles of wine... In the late afternoon, Bob and I got on the phone with our Dad. I also got Becky's phone number but I was unable to reach her. I need to call her this week for sure. Treve and I exchange emails from time-to-time - it's the letter writing of this era...

We headed back to Sacramento around 6 and stopped at Dave and Christie's house. We had a couple of drinks and caught up while the kids watched a move. Then, we headed back to the hotel to pack. It was great to visit with so many friends and family. I wish we could have connected with Tony and Jennifer and family. I should have gave him more notice that we were coming down.

We got up at 5 on Tuesday morning, showered, loaded the car, ate breakfast and headed to the airport at 7:15. We arrived at the airport at 7:30. Now...I once traveled the day after Christmas to a customer site in Alabama several years ago. I don't remember it being any different than any other travel day... Tuesday was a madhouse at Sacramento Airport. The baggage check-in line was longer than I've ever seen - both inside and outside. I dropped Lisa and the kids off to stand in line while I returned the rental. When I returned, they moved about halfway up in the line... Luckily, they opened 2 more check-in stations and we were done with that phase by 8:20 or so. Onto the next phase: Security checkpoint. The line went from the checkpoint, across the walkway and back, and down to the first floor to baggage claim. We were quite surprised that the line moved very quickly (even with the "more important people" who jumped ahead in line, cut in halfway, and some who even bypassed the line on the first floor by running up the wrong way on the escalator). We made it to the terminal by 9:00 or a little after - time enough to enjoy a bloody mary (no thanks to the waitress who ignored us for 10+ minutes).

We boarded the plane about 20-minutes late but we made that up in the air. Both the flight down to Sacramento and the flight back were pretty bumpy. Neither Lisa nor I like flying much but I've flown several times a year for the past 20 or so years. Lisa was very nervous. Luckily, I sat with the kids so she could relax and talk with the wierdos that she sat next to....

Santa 2
On the flight back, I wondered aloud whether Santa stopped by our house while we were away - "he only stops at the houses of the nice boys and girls." The kids started wondering aloud too. When we arrived home, we woke the kids from their short car nap and started exciting them with more Santa talk. We opened the door and there were several presents under the tree!! (On Sunday, as I loaded up the kids, Lisa placed them there so the kids would be surprised when we returned). The kids played for the rest of the day and were in bed early. Then, Lisa and I watch "Mr. and Mrs. Smith". We retired at 9:30 or so... It was a whirlwind 3 days...but worth it. Pics coming soon...

posted by Sam @ 8:06 PM