A Great Christmas

That certainly was a full Christmas! For those of you who don't know, I came home for Christmas to surprise the family and the girl, and were they surprised! I'll give a little background first, then the surprises and the outcome of the few days back in the States.

It all started back in March when I decided once and for all that I was going to actually do this whole moving-over-here thing. I bought my ticket in May-ish, right before Phil told me that he and Suzi were thinking about a May 2008 wedding. I wanted to spend more time over here than four months, so I went ahead and moved my trip up to early October. That allows me to work for the full six months that I'm allowed and still have a month or so for travel afterwards. So now, I had two tickets going to England, one in October, one December 27th. I was planning on just getting my December ticket refunded, but I would have only gotten $75 out of it after the $225 cancellation fee. The hotel had no rooms booked from the 23rd to the 27th, so I wouldn't have worked like I had planned either, so by mid-month, I was going to be sitting by myself for four days during Christmas. I wanted to go home.

Joel and I talked about surprising the family. I asked the boss for the days off and after much deliberation and negotiating, she reluctantly let me off from the 23rd to the 28th. I bought a $487 ticket to Chicago for Sunday the 23rd, only Joel, Luke, and JWey knowing. As the sun rose on the 23rd, so did my spirits as I rolled into the airport on the bus from Oxford. A few minutes later after a quick check-in and security sweep, I grabbed a bagel and some water and waited for my plane. A 7 1/2 hour flight back, I got into Chicago around 3:30, Chicago time. The Blue Line to the Union Station brought me to a delayed train headed to Crawfordsville and finally around 6:15 we left. We stopped for an hour 10 minutes later because of a signal somewhere near 80th Street and we were on 59th, so I got to sit for longer. FINALLY, I got into Crawfordsville at 11:30 and walked to the gas station across from the library and called Sam:

"Sam, don't act surprised or get excited or anything, just come and get me from the gas station across from the library."
"What? What library?"
"The Crawfordsville Libary! I'm home and I'm waiting at the gas station that's across the street from the library. Don't get surprised or anything, just come get me!"

Sam pulled up and I hopped in. We went to Taco Bell because I haven't had any for 3 months and I was DYING for some good ol' fake Mexican food. Arriving home, Gabe ran, Micah looked like he was dreaming and commented several times that he felt that way, and Mom couldn't decide whether to cry or laugh, but a calm prevailed. Nice job, Mom! It was nice because nobody knew that I was coming home so it was truly a surprise for all. What good night that was! After 15 hours of sitting, it was good to be home and with my family. The next day and Christmas went by quickly with visits to a friend in Indy and getting some shoes, seeing some of the extended family, church, then obviously the Christmas dinner with the family. Halo 3, ping pong, Apples to Apples and good conversation and dance was the platform for Christmas night and again, not enough sleep followed. I woke up the next day with the next surprise ready to go. Sam, Nicole and I drove to Cincinnati where I was going to surprise a certain girl I've been wanting to see for the duration that I've been abroad.

We got to Cincy later than I wanted and later than I had warned, so at 11:45 I finally got to see Natalie. Finally. A day with her family entailed a walk to a waterfall, personal concerts by Nat and her brother and sister, some games, some videos, a game of backgammon and some of the best chili I've ever had. My Christmas was now complete, and although I was the one surprising everybody, it turned out to be one of the best Christmases I can remember. It would have been nice to be home for at least a couple more days, but I couldn't change that. I am now rejuvenated and ready for more travel. I didn't think I got enough of home to really want to not be there, but I'm certainly ready now to get back out and see the world. I'll do a list sometime within the next couple of weeks with a few different possible itineraries for my March/April travels and maybe my readers will be able to make suggestions and give me some good input, yeah? Hey? As for now, I'm gonna make some soup and get ready to head to bed. Happy New Year and Cheers!