Christmas Day

(Editor's Note: I'm nervous as I write this because Angela has reminded me of the stickler that Fr. Reid is for grammar. Please accept my public confession should I misspell anything, or stick a semicolon where it doesn't belong!)

I remember as a child, waking up at 5 AM on Christmas Day because I was too excited to sleep. I HAD to be the first one downstairs to see if Santa was good to us. (Yes Dad, he was always good -- even the year that he decided to come down the wood-stove chimney and leave the presents in the basement instead of under the tree!)

Today is like Christmas Day for me. We're going to a foreign country that I never would have dreamed of visiting in my wildest dreams. We're going to adopt a child who we've only seen in pictures. We're going somewhere where English will be a rare pleasure, people leave pet songbirds hanging in cages from local park trees when they go to work, and anything on four legs is considered dinner ("'Rover' -- it's what's for dinner!") We're going to China.

Don't get me wrong, Angela is just as giddy. I heard her waking up about the same time, 15 minutes ahead of the 6 AM alarm which I would noramlly sleep through on a work day. We got ready and packed up the rest of our things. Mom came up last night so we could make sure she knew all the peculiarities about the house including how to operate the computer and television, as well as how to lock the front door. Please God, let our house be in one piece when we get home. We were right on schedule as we pulled out of the driveway at 7:15 AM.

Now everyone says to be at the airport at least an hour ahead of schedule because of all the security screening. Having recently flown to Texas for our godson Mirko's baptism, I can safely say that Charlotte is one of the EASIEST airports to get through in terms of security. (Of course, I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.) We were at our gate by 8 AM, twiddling our fingers. Our flight was not until 9:30 AM.

What do you do in an airport terminal for 1-1/2 hours when you already have food & entertainment arranged for the trip? Small talk, of course. We talked about "Lost" and how it was odd that they (...spoiler ahead...) knocked off Shannon who was the only survivor in communication with Walt. (...end spoiler...) We talked about other air travelers such as the 300-pound guy wheeling an itty, bitty five pound briefcase behind him. Or the couple who looked like a Mafia hitman with his trophy wife. We talked about why the plane to Dallas/Ft. Worth boarded at 8:15 AM, but was still sitting on the tarmac at 9 AM while the pilot and mechanic conversed. We talked about which passenger was most likely to be the air marshall; do they still have those on domestic flights? And of course, we talked about Eli whenever we saw families with small children walk by.

Finally it was time to board our flight to Newark. After a couple of moments debating the advantages and disadvantages of preboarding with small children (who wants to sit any longer than necessary in a cramped airplane with little ones??), we found our way to our seats, 18 B and C.

Considering we are heading for the Far East, it should have come as no surprise that karma was at work. We sat down in front of two women speaking in a foreign language (ok, so it was Spanish, but it was still not the comforting sound of English!), and holding an infant on their lap who occasionally let out a shrill, disgruntled cry -- a taste of what we would unleash on other unsuspecting passengers two weeks from now I suppose.

On the bright side, we were offered muffins for breakfast to go along with our complimentary sodas, I was given the full can without having to ask, and the flight arrived ahead of schedule. Not to mention that check-in earlier had no line and a smooth, automated check-in process. Much better than the US Air/Continental trip to Texas last month where they had no record of our reservations, our baggage was lost in both directions, and snacks were nowhere to be found.

I wrote this entry while enroute to Newark in a Classic Graphics notepad. Angela was content after scarfing down somoe dried apples and two muffins, and she is now working through some logic and word puzzles. I was hoping to find a wireless public access point in the Newark airport, but instead find myself typing in Notepad with hopes of uploading upon arrival in Hong Kong. I suppose that will give me the opportunity to add to this entry while on the overseas flight. It's Saturday morning in Newark as I type this (just turned 12 PM), but after 16 hours in the air, it will be 8 PM Sunday locally in Hong Kong. Oh well, on the 16-hour return trip only 9 hours will pass relative to local time zones.

Can you tell we don't have Jeremy yet? I'm guessing posts won't be this long after we have him with us. Feel free to leave comments here or email us. I told mom this morning that we would communicate via this journal rather than sending personalized emails to all of you. Of course we will be checking our email when we get the chance. Hopefully Eli knows how much we miss him (and we're still on the east coast!). To use one of Angela's phrases, "It touched my heart" when I left for work Friday morning and Eli said, "I miss you too Daddy." (sniff) We're coming Jeremy...

P.S. Angela got to see downtown New York city...from the "C" terminal of the Newark airport!