We’re not having the smoothest luck with air travel this month. Yesterday at 3am we queued up at the airline counter to check in and check our bag… and after a few minutes, someone came up to us and said, “You do know the flight is cancelled, right?” (Of all the dumb questions! If we knew there was no flight, would we be standing there at three in the morning? I ask you.)

The airline had automatically re-booked us for the following (Christmas!) day—a plan to which we objected on several levels, so we got RE-re-booked, instead, for substantially later the same day. Instead of arriving at Palm Springs at 10:30 in the morning, we finally got to my mom’s place at 10:30 in the evening. Significantly longer travel day.

I brushed my teeth and faceplanted directly into her bed. Jon held off long enough to eat, then joined me.

This morning we woke up to a whole new world. Sunshine, and warm, and distinctly un-winterlike. Coffee and SUNSHINE on her patio!

We opened stockings and had our traditional Christmas breakfast of coconut orange rolls, and those are the two most traditional bits of our day. Our least traditional was spending the afternoon at the pool!

This evening we’ve been sitting around the fire, chatting and singing Christmas carols. We actually did one more traditional thing: we went down the street and sang “Silent Night,” in German, to my mother’s German neighbors.

She & I sing a descant together every year on the last verse of “Silent Night”—but our late arrival yesterday meant we missed all the church services. Singing it for Hans & Verlene made up for it nicely.

However you celebrated, Merry Christmas to you and yours!