I'll be home for Christmas...maybe.

Yesterday it occurred to me that I haven't told the story of how we got home for Christmas. It's a long one so feel free to skip it or get comfy and I'll tell you the tale...

We were set to fly out of Anchorage at 7:20AM on December 23 and would arrive in Orlando at 11:45 that night. We got up the morning of the 23rd and a friend drove us to the airport. We got a little lost (our shortcut turned into a tour of Anchorage) and arrived at the airport at 7:00. Our boarding passes said "BOARDING TIME 6:50." This was only my second time flying and apparently Kyle had a brain lapse because 6:50 was when boarding ended. We had missed our flight. The US Airways worker told us we were at the wrong gate anyway, they used to be at the gate on our ticket but now they were at this gate. So we were at the right gate, the worker just felt the need to point out that we were at a gate different than printed on our ticket. I could have punched him.

But I didn't. I leaned against the counter and sank to the ground, Christmas carols playing over the loudspeaker. It was like something out of a movie.

"What are we going to do?" I asked.

Kyle didn't have an answer, but he was angry. He called his friend to come back to the airport and pick us up. Brian made his way back and Kyle explained what had happened. He was upset for us.

We couldn't afford another $2,000 for different tickets home and we could barely afford to pay any difference between tickets. The thought of not going home and wasting our $2,000 made me ill.

We got put on the next flight out at no charge. Thank God. Our flight left at 1:55AM on Christmas Eve morning. We went home, I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and Kyle went to sleep.

I couldn't sleep. I tried and tried but never slept for more than 45min. at a time. I was so afraid we'd miss our second flight and US Airways would stop being as generous as they were. Our families were upset that we had missed our flight but Kyle's grandma had the most understanding reaction, "Well, crap happens. We'll see you when you get here."

We got to the airport early that morning. We weren't going to miss our flight again. Security was a breeze because really, who is flying out of Anchorage at 1:55AM on Christmas Eve? Oh, that's right. People like us who miss their original flight.

We boarded the plane and I was starving. Since it was so early, nothing was being served so I took my Dramamine and fell asleep. I woke up shortly before we landed in Phoenix. We didn't have time to get anything to eat in the airport, we only had ten minutes to get to our connecting flight. (The Phoenix airport is huge.)

I was miserable. Exhausted, starving, and I just wanted to be in a bed. Any bed. That wasn't an option so I bought a bag of trail mix from the stewardess ($4! Highway robbery!) and picked out the almonds (they're my favorite.) After and handful of them, I fell back asleep.

We landed in Orlando and my parents took us back to their house where my entire family was waiting for our annual Christmas Eve get-together. As happy as I was to see everyone again, I just wanted to lay down. I grabbed a handful of crackers (all I could stomach at this point) and went into the bedroom. I was unbelievably glad that flight was over and dreaded the thought of having to do it again.