Christmas this year was filled with friends, family, and travel. Pre-Christmas, Kurt and I hosted our first real ‘party’, a holiday get-together with hot drinks and snacks (it wasn’t quite themed, but many of the food/drinks had a German or Swedish angle). We were mostly celebrating the rearrangement and furnishing of our living room, which gives it a much more welcoming feel (of course, once more people arrived than could be comfortably seated in our small living room, everyone gravitated to the kitchen and stood). My parents also came to visit Columbus, OH for the first time. Their train was delayed coming into Chicago, meaning they missed their flight and didn’t make it in until the next morning, but Amtrak did put them up in a hotel and paid for their taxi fares so it worked out okay.
For Christmas itself, Kurt went to take care of his parents in Kentucky, and I travelled with my parents (flight to Chicago, train to Minneapolis-St. Paul) to visit relatives in Wisconsin, primarily to help my grandmother celebrate her 90th birthday on Dec. 23. Loads of relatives showed up. I think I counted a total of 24 out-of-town guests. I found it a bit overwhelming at times – just the sheer number of people who were there.
There was one uncomfortable moment when I tried to refrain from participating in the $10 gift exchange game (because I didn’t find out that we were planning to do this until the last minute) and several people volunteered to put an extra package into the mix so I could play (which someone did) and then I was pressured into playing (and, of course picked a gift that I’d probably never use in my life – and one that no one else wanted to steal from me), but mostly I had a good time.
Unfortunately, the travel gods smiled unkindly in my family’s general direction once again, and I too found myself on a train, six hours behind schedule, and missing my initial connection in Chicago – a mirror event to what happened six days earlier when my parents were on the same train schedule, trying to catch the same flight to Columbus. Fortunately, Amtrak came through for me as well and put me up in a hotel and even paid for the exchange fee that Southwest charged me to change my flight to the next day. Still, one does wonder whether mixing modes of travel like that is really the wisest course of action.
It’s good to revisit family connections occasionally, to feel that sense of community, to share in good food, and play games together, but it’s also good to be back home again.
