The Family Returns

After a ridiculously long day yesterday, our family has returned to Shanghai and all managed to stay in bed until 5:30 this morning. Just for fun, allow me to provide you with a run-down of our day yesterday.

7:00am - left Dave's parents' house, right on time
8:00am - Entered the expedited line at O'Hare Airport
Dave has enough frequent flyer miles to be in their Premier Executive class, and supposedly not have to wait in line at the airport. But yesterday, as most of the airports on the East Coast were sitting quietly closed, O'Hare was a mess and we stood in line for an hour.
9:00am - Moving from one line to the next, we stood in line at security for another half an hour.
9:30am - After grabbing a quick few snacks in lieu of breakfast, we boarded the plane immediately.
10:01am - The time the plane was supposed to take off for Shanghai
12:30pm - The time they announced we would be using a different plane for our flight to Shanghai, and asked everyone to deboard.
12:40pm - The time they changed their minds, and decided that this faulty plane would do.
1:00pm - The approximate time we actually left Shanghai, after sitting on the plane for an additional 3 hours. Lucky we had bought those snacks, because this pregnant Mama would have really been a mess by then! Luckily, the girls played like little angels and everything went smoothly.

In fact, most of the flight went smoothly from that point. The girls received children's meals, and they came early each time. The girls played well, although they only slept for about 2 hours each. They spent a lot of time in front of movies, and remained surprisingly happy. I ate well enough, and didn't really begin to feel bad until the last few hours of the flight.

However, something hit Dave about 7 hours into the flight, and he spent the remaining 6.5 hours as curled up in a ball as a 6 foot 3 inch man can manage in Economy Plus. He threw up as the plane was landing, and so felt better as we pulled out children and multitude of stuff through customs and on to baggage claim. Where we only retrieved 5 of our 8 bags. The boxes with Christmas gifts all arrived, so that's good. But all of our clothes presumably stayed in Chicago while we sat on the tarmac for hours. Here's to hoping they arrive in Shanghai this afternoon.

The family went to bed at 6:30 last night, 36 hours by calendar from when our family awoke. Actually, only 22 hours later - but that's an awfully long time for a 3 year old to stay awake. We all crashed until about 1am this morning. But my wonderful children saw the darkness outside, and each managed to fall back asleep with me until 5:30am. Running on a good 11 hours of sleep, the three of us are feeling good. Dave's still upstairs feeling crummy, but the hard part is over. I can abide with a sick husband when we're at home.

All things considered, this time was perfect. We made it to Chicago in time for a huge family Christmas around Dave's grandmother. The girls and I spent the bulk of advent in St. Louis with my family, going to our home church, shopping for Christmas trees and making holiday cookies. We spent time with every aunt and uncle (minus only 1), and we returned to Chicago on the day that Great-Grandma passed away. The entire family was blessfully able to participate in her funeral and burial, and to spend more time with Dave's extended family. The time was a wonderful blessing for our girls, for Dave, and for his mother and family.

And to be honest, I'm glad to be home just now. We've got a few quiet days to adjust to Shanghai time before diving into our own, small Christmas festivities. This will be a year for creating our own family traditions, and enjoying Christmas in our own cozy home. As much as I love a large Christmas, I'm really looking forward to our quiet event.