To Grandfather's House We Go! Part 1

For 2016's actual Christmas, we were really pleased to be able to join my Mom's side of the family by flying back to Florida (the greater Tampa and Orlando areas) for a few days.  We headed out early in the morning on Christmas Eve, bound for LAX (all of the complaints about LAX are totally legit, by the way.  Getting in and out of there is a nightmare, and the food and whatnot in the terminals is just so-so - granted, we were spoiled in Phoenix by the exceptional airport food there - but it often ends up being the least expensive airport by a few hundred dollars each way, and when you're buying two cross-country tickets for the most expensive travel time of the year, every little bit helps).

We didn't know how long the lines would be at the airport, but thankfully, they were all short, and we had our bags dropped off and our selves through security relatively quickly.  Since we knew this might be the case, we brought some snacks to serve as a cold breakfast on the plane, but we were more than happy to take advantage of the hot food options in the airport while we waited for our flight.

As always, the airport breakfast of champions

As I recall, our flight was pretty much on time, and we headed for our layover in New Orleans without issue, with the exception of one notable item.  Prior to boarding in LAX, we grabbed some cold lunch options for eating later, and I'd decided on a wrap of sorts, complete with Italian dressing.  After finishing my wrap, I went to dispose of my dressing packet and dumped it into the no-longer-being-used wrapper, only to find out that this was not properly sealed.  This ended up with me dumping most of the remainder of my Italian dressing all over the tray table and my jeans; thankfully, I had some baby wipes with me (not just for babies anymore!), and I cleaned up as best I could.  I also thanked my lucky stars that my lap now smelled like Italian dressing, instead of something far more foul, like ketchup or mayo or milk (shudder!).

Anywhoo, we grabbed Mom her requested praline at the Praline Connection in the Louis Armstrong airport and got ready to take off for our leg to Orlando (although we'd be staying with Mom at her place in Pinellas Park for the second part of our trip, we'd be landing in Florida late in the day on the 24th, when the whole family would already be gathered at my Granddad's house in Maitland.  Thus, we chose to fly into Orlando and back out through Tampa.  Everyone with me?  Okay good.  Moving on...).  Our flight was boarded on time, but after a few moments of waiting all buckled in like good little ducklings, our pilot came over the speaker and let us know the ground crew was concerned about what seemed to be a dent in the plane's tail.  We all agreed that this was not the stuff of which safe airline dreams are made, so we were content to wait until an inspection team came out to more thoroughly assess the issue.  After about an hour of inspecting and re-inspecting, the pilot came back on the line to let us know that the dent wasn't a true dent; instead, it was a "visual distortion," which was easily cleaned up with some man spit and a Terry Towel (I'm taking some artistic license here), and we were on our way.

We landed in Orlando without further issue, and when Chris asked me who would be picking us up at the airport, I told him I really didn't know.  While Granddad would stay at the house, and likely, my Uncle Doug would keep him company there (he was in charge of procuring pizza for dinner), I didn't know who else might be joining Mom, Jim, and Leigh to greet us once we disembarked the plane.  As we rode the tram to curbside and proceeded toward the family reunion area, I told Chris I could see Mom's head bouncing up and down in uncontrolled excitement.  As we drew nearer, I could also make out Jim, waving his arms over his head, and of course, I waved back.  

At that moment, what seemed like a chorus of all of the loudest people you've ever known in your life erupted (there's really no other word) into a joyful melee of cheering and singing.  In addition to Mom and Jim, my Aunt Kim, Uncle Jim, and cousins Ethan and Emma had all come out to the airport to meet us, dressed in full holiday splendor.  Check it:

But louder.

Like 1,000 times louder.

From left, Uncle Jim, Leigh, Jim,

Mom, Ethan, Aunt Kim, and Emma.

The signs read:

"Fryar, Ashley, Olsen Family Christmas 2016"

It was awesome!  We turned the heads of everyone in that part of the airport, and many comments were made about how the families of the other passengers really sucked.  Well, yeah, compared to mine, they do.  Obviously (for reals - other folks were videotaping my people as they strolled by from their planes.  We're all internet famous!).

We made our way downstairs, making friends as we went, collected our bags, hopped in the cars, and headed out, stopping first at Uncle Jim and Aunt Kim's to see Pavlov, our neph-dog, and then proceeding to Granddad's.  We greeted him and Uncle Doug, relayed our mis-adventures in the world of aviation, and feasted on pizza.  For my part, I also made use of Granddad's laundry facilities to make my jeans Italian dressing neutral again, which was lovely.

After dinner, it was time for dessert, and in case the massive piles of sugar baked by all of us and brought to the house weren't enough, we took part in our annual Christmas birthday cake tradition.  See, whenever I mention having a near Christmas birthday, people almost always comment that this must be awful; I try to politely correct them, as it's the opposite of awful - it's totally amazing.  Part of this is unique in our family's situation that I'm not the only Christmas baby around - Mom is the 17th, Ethan is the 15th, Grandmom was the 14th, and my great Uncle Bill is the 7th.  We know that holiday babies sometimes get the short end of the stick in general, but that doesn't happen in our family.  So we always celebrate...

...with Publix cake!

There is none better, that's for sure.

After dinner, we had a great time sampling some of the local(ish) brews Ethan had procured for us, and as a nightcap before we all headed off to bed (gotta go to sleep for Santa to show up!), Uncle Doug busted out the really good stuff.

Yup, that's the 15 year!

While I was driving us to our lodging for the night (the Sheraton Orlando North - close, recently remodeled, and very reasonable - fantastic all around), I just took a quick sip of Chris', but many of the rest of the crew had a full taste.  Even in my small bit, I could tell this was great stuff.

Uncle Doug, Ethan, Uncle Jim, Jim, and Chris enjoy!

After that, it was off to bed for us after our long day of travel!  Up next, Christmas Day!

Later!

Amy