We're Baaaack!

Our trip to see my parents and grandparents was wonderful. We all had a great time visiting. Christmas morning we had a nice big breakfast, and then we opened gifts.

This is such a good picture of my grandparents!

Here's J with a travel shoe shine kit. A little something silly from Dad.

My dad and mom opening our gift to them.

"Movie Night", a new DVD, popcorn, and candy all ready for them to enjoy.

I think J had the best time opening a gift from my dad. It was a rifle handed down from my dad's father when he passed away. The look on J's face was priceless. He was giddy like a little kid when he saw it. Later in the day, J and Dad went into the basement to look at Dad's hunting "toys". J ended up getting a spotting scope out of it as well. He's all set until next Christmas. I'm glad they were able to have some fun "guy" time.

A nice picture of my dad.

During the week we spent quality time with each other. One day we decided to go to Frankenmuth, Michigan to visit Bronner's ("Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland", a huge Christmas store open all year round) and to eat some really good German food at the Bavarian Inn. That was fun and it brought back some good memories.

This is a good picture of my mom too.

Thursday night, J and I got ready for my high school class reunion. My mom was making dinner, and everything was ready. We were talking to my dad to see which car we should take, and I heard a thump. Then I heard my grandmother call out to my grandfather. I stopped talking to my dad and said, "Oh no, someone just fell! Someone just fell!" I hurried to my parent's bedroom where my grandparents were staying and J was on his way behind me. My grandmother had tripped over my grandfather's walker while packing her luggage and fell.

We asked where she was hurt, and carefully got her on her side instead of laying face down on the carpet. Then my dad and J gently got her up on the bed where she could rest. By that point I was already holding a cloth to her left eyebrow where her glasses cut it, and we discovered she had cut her little finger, possibly with her fingernail or ring. J went to get Mom, because she was in a noisy kitchen and didn't hear what had happened. It was probably best that way, because J was able to break the news in a controlled way and also get some ice for Grandma.

I decided then and there that we would not be going to the reunion. I knew we were going to take Grandma to the hospital to be checked out, and I didn't want to go somewhere and try to enjoy myself when I was concerned about her.

We made our way to the hospital and got my grandma admitted. After a few hours, some stitches (in her eyebrow and finger), a handful of x-rays and a broken bone in her hand, she was doing fine and thankfully had not been hurt any worse. I'm really thankful she didn't hit her head on the bathroom tile or break a hip. That would have been much worse. After the excitement, we were all hungry. We asked Grandma if she wanted to go home or if she wanted to eat someplace close. She said she was up for eating out, so we found a Friday's that was open until 1:00 am, and we had a really late dinner. Even though it was a rough night, we were still able to enjoy dinner and each other's company.

The next morning, Grandma was a little sore, but she was doing well considering what had happened. We ate breakfast and my parents took my grandparents to the airport. I wish nothing had happened to require a visit to the hospital, but am thankful for such a great time with everyone. (They called us when they made it home and everything was okay. Whew!)

My parent's dog, Bailey, opening a gift just for her.

She got a new toy and a bone.

December 30th, we were able to have dinner and visit with my aunt (dad's sister) and uncle. I had not seen them since October of 2005 when my grandfather died. It was nice to sit and talk for a while. We had two different homemade soups and sandwiches for dinner, and my aunt brought her delicious cherry pie for dessert. We were all stuffed by the time dessert came around, but managed to make room.

Last night, after a full day of traveling, J and I returned home. We left Michigan and had a four hour layover in Chicago. That wasn't a big problem, however with delays from the weather, that added another two hours onto the original four. Wheee. We boarded our plane around 7 pm instead of 5 pm, and sat on the runway for about 30 minutes. Normally this would be mildly bothersome. However, when you have a pounding tension headache, everyone is trying to relax in a tense situation, a three year-old little boy won't listen to his parents as he yells, "Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding!" repeatedly, and then screams and cries because he is told to sit down (directly across from you), it starts to get on your nerves. *grin*

We finally made it back home (at the airport), and found that one piece of luggage was "missing". A woman in the lost baggage department looked our tickets up and saw that the piece of luggage had remained with our Northwest Airlines flight out of Detroit. It had not made the connection in Chicago with Continental. Fortunately it was going to the same place we were, just on a different flight. I stayed with all of our other bags and J hurried across terminal C, to terminal A before their baggage claim area closed for the night at 10:30 pm. Thankfully we retrieved all our luggage and caught a parking lot shuttle to get our car.

From there we paid for parking (Eeeek!) and went to pick up our pup, Kira, at J's boss' house. This was around 11:15 pm or so. After that, we made it home in time to unload the car, get the necessities unpacked so we could get into bed around 12:20 am. Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a nice start to the new year. We did.