Christmas Visit 2022 (part3) Dec 26-30

Monday, December 26 – Oakland Airport
Anna's departure the day after Christmas did not go as planned. Her flight with Southwest Airline was scheduled for 10:20 am and Jeremy dutifully took her early enough to get to Oakland airport ~30 miles away 2 hours in advance of her departure. He parked and went in with her, checked her luggage, made sure she had wheel chair assistance, and left to drive back to Livermore as soon as she had gone through security. She was waiting at her gate when she learned her flight had been cancelled and the backlog to talk to customer service to make other arrangement was estimated to be 3 hours. She had gotten caught up in the 2022 holiday fiasco where Southwest cancels 5,400 flights in less than 48 hours in a 'full-blown meltdown'.

Jeremy had already returned to Livermore when she called in a panic, unsure what to do. Jeremy talked her down from requesting a refund, advising her to instead demand they book her on another fight. The soonest flight she could get was Thursday, Dec 29 at 6:00 am. She could not get the Friday Dec 30 at 6:00 am which was when Jeremy, Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah were leaving.

Jeremy returned to the airport to pick her up and Robin rode along for company. They learned there was an uncertain estimate, on the order of 3-4 hours, before Anna'a luggage could be located and returned to her. Seeing the seas and seas of luggage, she was reluctant to leave until she got hers back. Jeremy brought Robin back to Livermore so she could spend time with us and he returned to the airport to wait with his mom.  She final got her luggage a few hours after Jeremy's return. Anna and Jeremy came back to Livermore in time for a late dinner. Three round trips with one car to Oakland airport in one day set a new record.

Monday, December 26 – Home Activities
On the home front, Isaiah had a good time with Grandpa and his trains.

Autumn learned to play solitaire on my home computer and got hooked on the game. She started to teach Isaiah but he was not so enamored.

Isaiah was much happier with a firing a pop air gun or shooting foam dart guns with his sister.

Tuesday, December 27th – Mom/Daughter Fabric Outing
Robin and I took off to visit some quilt shops. We made minimal purchases but enjoyed our time together. It was ~30 miles one way. Our round trip was roughly equal to one round trip to Oakland airport. We only did it once, though, not three times! My post for 1/3/22 in my other blog DianeLoves2Quilt.blogspot.com describes in more detail about this fun outing to three quilt shops.

 

Tuesday, December 27th – Homefront

While Robin and I were out gallivanting bonding, Isaiah spent time getting close and personal with our cat Tee. He and Grandpa also spent time going through all the curiosities in "Frank's Memory Box", nostalgic items from his childhood.

Tuesday, December 27th – Dinner at Strizzi's Livermore

Tuesday, December 27th – Evening at Deacon Dave's
A deacon at our local Catholic Church puts on a huge Christmas light display every year at his house called House of the Dove (Casa del Pomba). Lines are long for the crowds waiting a turn to walk the loop in his front courtyard. Before Christmas we all drove by one night for a quick peek within but did not park and wait in line. One perk of Anna's delayed departure was the crowds were less and we did take the opportunity to walk through a couple day's after Christmas. The 2022 theme was North Pole Operations Center featuring views into Santa's workshop and the post office where request are received and fulfilled. The 2022 Light Count was 785,800.

Wednesday, December 28th – Lego Discovery Center
 We took two cars – Frank, Alex, and me in one car and Jeremy, Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah in the other –  and traveled ~30 miles to the LEGO Discovery Center in Milpitas. There were displays, Lego and Duplo building, movies, and even a train ride and everybody enjoyed themselves. More details are in my WanderOrPonder.blogspot.com post dated 2/13/23. Anna did not come along but stayed behind and made us a delicious home cooked meal of tostadas. She timed it perfectly to be hot and ready when we walked in the door, happy but worn out.

Isaiah made certain he spent a fair amount of time with Tee that day, too! Tee loved all the attention.

Thursday, December 28 and Friday, December 29 and other miscellaneous days
Anna's flight was on Thursday at 6:00am. Jeremy took her to the airport but they left her luggage behind for Robin and Jeremy to deal with on their return flight. Robin, Jeremy, Autumn, and Isaiah flew back on Friday, also on a 6:00 am flight (ugh!). Frank and I drove them to the airport in two cars. Our cars did get a workout during this visit. In total there were 13 car/round trips, 8 of which were to the Oakland airport. At ~30 miles one way for each trip we put  just under 800 miles on the cars!

• All arrival – 2 cars 1 round trip each
• Anna's false departure – 1 car 3 round trips
• Anna real departure – 1 car 1 round trip
• All departure – 2 cars 1 round trip each
• Winchester Mystery House – 1 car 1 round trip
• Fairyland  – 1 car 1 round trip
• Lego Discovery Center – 2 cars 1 round trip each
• Quilt shops – 1 car 1 round trip

I do not recall which days we did which but we enjoyed some sit-on-our-butt activities also. We watched a few episodes of  LegoMasters, a TV series where talented pairs of people complete in building challenges created by the show producers. We watched the movies Prancer (1989), a Christmas tale where a young girl rescues one of Santa's reindeer, and  While You Were Sleeping (1995), a traditional family favorite with a Christmas setting. Jeremy and Frank watched the movies, Midway (2019) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022). For games we played the old standard Sequence and a new game, The Great American Mail Race.

On the day before the last of our guests were to leave, the women posed for a photo of Robin, Autumn, and me, all in tops Robin sewed for us. It was a great and memorable visit. We had a fantastic time!