Christmas in St Louis

As anyone living overseas knows, coming 'home' for the holidays is always wonderful but exhausting. This year was now exception but amplified by a couple unique circumstances. First I left Kosovo with the kids 'alone' since Pranvera had to remain behind and work an extra work. Under the best of circumstances this was going to be a challenge. Surprisingly, the kids were amazing and Adi is old enough now to even help out when things start to get rough. And they did... A good trip would involve about 31 hours of travel and a 6 hour time difference. But the night we flew from DC to StL an ice storm had hit and they diverted our plane to land in Indianapolis.  So we touched down to wait in an empty airport that had already closed all its food stands and even turned the heat off in our terminal. 4 hours later they canceled the flight for the night and we had to wait a collective 3 hours more to get hotel vouchers, wait to pick up 1 bag and file a lost luggage for the other and wait for the hotel shuttle to take us 30 minutes away to a 2 star hotel with no food. Wait, it gets better. We only had 4 hours to sleep before returning to the airport to wait another half day since the pilots had to rest, our flight was not supposed to be at that airport so did not appear on schedule and they eventually did not have enough staff to even open the door to get to the plane. BUT eventually, 41 hours later we arrived. And it took another 4 days to adjust to the time change before mom arrived to help out;-)

We Airbnbed an apartment right next to my dad centrally located in St Louis near all the shopping. St Louis hospitality included a tree in the apartment, chocolate cake in the fridge and presents for the kids under the tree. It was a great home away from home and my sister stayed with us till Pranvera arrived so was nice to have family close by.

Well the holiday schedule was anything but relaxing. But it was certainly fun. Blues hockey game, The Magic House, Monkey Joe's, swimming, the library, ice skating, transportation museum, riding the Polar Express train to the North Pole, play dates with my friends kids, Christmas service and opening presents. Not to mention great visits with old life long friends (Alex, Adam, Mark, Sidney, Hank). These trips are always hard as it reminds me on what great friends I have that I can only see once every couple years. The kids loved being around grandpa and their Aunt Stacey each day. The two weeks there was not enough but at that pace seemed long enough. Luckily our next flight was a short one just to DC to enjoy the New Years with our dear friend the Kaisers out at their house on the shore...

Sleeping in the Indi Airport

Transport Museum

Monkey Joe's

 Polar Express

 

Christmas (finally)

 

Alex and Nicole

 

Christmas Cheer

 Magic House