Andrej, Jessica, Kaiya and Tobi

Better late than never…right? We are quite behind on blog postings and will try over the next few days to play catch up. We have some really exciting news to share, but first, there’s Christmas. Andrej uploaded tons of pictures from our Christmas holiday in South Carolina. You can see them all here.

We had a great time in South Carolina, once we actually got there. Our trip down was a nightmare that included flight delays, rerouting, missed flights, rerouting once again, more delays and finally arriving in Charlotte, NC, instead of Greenville, SC, around 10:30 pm as opposed to our original arrival time of 3:30 pm. After watching the same luggage go around and around and around the turnstile we realized that ours was obviously missing, so we filed a claim hoping that it would come in on the next flight and we would have our things delivered the next morning. We loaded up an extremely overtired Kaiya and our carry on bags and made the two hour drive to my parents’ house arriving just before 1:00 am. The saddest thing from the whole day was that we missed my dad’s side of the family’s Christmas party. 

The next day, Saturday, December 23, I called NWA only to find out that they had no idea where our luggage was and there was nothing we could do but wait and try calling back later. They offered up a $50 reimbursement for items that we would need to buy until our luggage came. Ha! When we finally purchased everything from deodorant to underwear to diapers we had far exceeded our limit. Plus, we all still needed nice clothes to wear to church the next day. Thankfully my grandfather contributed and we were able to buy all that we needed to get us through until early Wednesday morning when the luggage finally made its way to Starr.

Christmas Eve was a beautiful South Carolina day filled with warm sunshine. We enjoyed a nice church service, playing outside and dinner with my family. Kaiya went to bed not having a clue what she was about to experience upon her waking. My mom bought her a shirt that said it best, “Look Out Santa Here Comes Grandma!” It was so true! We had a blast opening gifts and enjoying a delicious breakfast together.

Soon after breakfast we piled into cars and headed to NC, to my Great Auntie M’s for lunch with my mother’s side of the family. My grandparents accompanied Kaiya in the backseat and took turns playing silly games and singing Christmas carols to her until she was so tuckered out that she drifted off into a blissful sleep where she stayed the rest of the drive. It was great to see my extended family after so long, and no one could believe how much Kaiya had grown. Christmas was as it should be; a fun day spent with loved ones.

The following days were spent catching up with family and friends, playing with all the new toys, playing outside (something we don’t get to do a lot of here), riding Papa’s tractor, visiting Papa’s cows, and relaxing.

On Saturday, Andrej and I headed to Atlanta to hopefully connect with a group of our Slovak friends and former American teammates as they were flying in from Slovakia for a conference in Atlanta. We knew their arrival time at the airport and tacking on their time spent going through customs we had plenty of time to meet them at baggage claim before they all dispersed and headed to their host homes. Unfortunately, we had no clue that a football bowl game was being played in Atlanta later that evening and we got stuck in terrible traffic. The drive from my parents’ to the Atlanta airport usually takes about two hours. Due to the traffic, we made it there in just under four hours thus missing all of our friends. It was so disappointing, especially for Andrej. He just sat on Lufthansa's turnstile at baggage claim, refusing to leave and accept the fact that we had missed them. He was hoping that someone would be running late and show up.

It wasn’t, however, a totally wasted trip as our dear friends Amanda and Gavin were in a hospital in Atlanta where Amanda had recently given birth to their beautiful daughter Morgan. We headed over to visit them and meet Morgan Grace. It was a nice time to reconnect as we haven’t seen them in years.

New Year’s Eve was spent as any other evening, Andrej and I went to bed around 10:30 pm and besides the occasional firework blast we wouldn’t have even known it was a special night. Our trip came to a close by joining my parents, grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins for New Year’s Day lunch. We had the traditional southern meal which included turnip and collard greens, black-eyed peas, ham, chicken, potatoes and sweet potatoes. Yum! If the superstition holds true then Andrej and I should be rich this year as we both consumed our share of the greens.

We rushed off to the airport to begin our trip back home. We arrived safely, with only a few delays, and thankfully with all of our luggage in tow. Well, at least we thought we had all of our luggage. Once we were home and Kaiya was in bed, we realized that Andrej's backpack was not among the bags. The backpack contained our laptop, all of the Christmas money we were given and a bunch of other important things. Andrej jumped in the car and headed back to the airport. Thankfully, security had picked it up and all of the contents were still tucked safely inside. Our vacation couldn't just end without throwing us for one more loop.

Overall, it was an incredible trip and a wonderful Christmas holiday spent with family and friends. The only thing missing was of course Andrej’s family, which is always difficult for us both especially around the holidays, but we are looking forward to teta Marina’s arrival this summer and our tentatively planned trip to Slovakia in September/Fall. Andrej was able to talk to his family on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve and we enjoyed all the pictures they sent from their festivities.

Christmas 2006 has come and gone and thankfully we have loads of pictures and memories to share for many Christmases to come.