We made it! Barely!
What an exhausting trip! Started at 3am in ther Philippines. Well, rewind that to Dec 23rd, the day of Vera's ballet recital. That was intense! Vera and I were at the theatre at 2pm, the show started at 5pm, Noah wasn't allowed in, so our two sweet yayas had to alternate babysitting him at the Jollybee across the street from the theatre.
Vera did an excellent job. She looked so cute, and she even had make-up on, just for fun. She liked the lip gloss the most :)
Then we went home, took about an hour, went to bed at 11pm, woke up at 3.30am, made it to the airport at 4am, boarded the plane and took off at 6.30am, in Hong Kong an hour and a half later, then a two hour layover, and another plane to board. 15 hours straight to Chicago. That was by far the worst experience of my life! Vera was a trooper. The best 3 year old traveler in the world. She stayed calm, happy, entertained, and she even slept!
Noah was the complete opposite. He was impossibly difficult to contain. We barely had any leg room, so the poor kid had to stay on my lap the entire time, most of which he screamt and kicked. He ate virtually nothing, and slept a total of about 4 hours (not continous). Not my idea of a fun plane ride. Never happening again.
Upon arrival in the States in Chicago, we had about an hour to pick up our bags, recheck them and board the next flight to Ohio. We didn't make it! Missed our flight by about 5 minutes! We are talking Christmas Eve, being stuck at an airport, not knowing if we'd find another flight out. By sheer luck, we managed to beg ourselves into the 4pm flight, which meant a 4 hour waiting period. Noah slept most of it, Vera kept colouring (she better be the next Van Gogh after all the colouring she has had to do!). Made it to Columbus in 45 minutes, which was the most nightmarish flight ever, with Noah this time having completely lost his mind and all of us not caring one bit anymore. The kid screamt the entire 45 minutes and wanted nothing to do with anyone! Argh!
Straight from the airport, we headed to Chris' aunt Shirley's for the traditional Christmas eve party. That was a lot of fun, even though we were all completely spaced out. Went to bed at midnight as we had a lot of gift wrapping to do. Woke up at 7am, had the usual Christmas morning breakfast of Mary's special cinammon rolls and coffee, then the exciting part of opening gifts. There was a lot. We had fun with that part. Quickly took our showers, dressed up and went to Chris' great aunt Sharon's for Christmas lunch. Kids took their naps there and that was the only time we had to socialize like adults. Made it back home around 5, by which time I was ready to collapse, not having slept for the last 48 hours. So I went to bed with the kids around 7pm, and today, I feel like I am finally alive!
Merry Christmas!
