At 2:20pm yesterday, Nich saw that seats became available on the 5:15pm Christmas Eve flight to Terrace. He called Air Canada straight-away, and waited for 20 minutes on hold, when we decided we should be travelling to the airport while we waited on hold. So we woke the kids from their naps, strapped them in the back of a borrowed 4x4 truck, quickly threw our luggage together and trekked off through the snow.
We were minutes away from arriving to the airport when I finally got a ticket agent on the phone (yep, on hold for almost one hour)- she booked us on the flight and told us we had to get the check-in ASAP- which I thought would be no problem.
Buuut, then we got lost. The we almost froze to death (while our luggage was getting soaked, sitting in the snow) while we waited for a shuttle. Eva started crying, because shuttle after shuttle came with no room for us. I started crying. This wasn't turning into a very merry Christmas Eve.
Forty-five freezing minutes later, a shuttle finally came with room for us, and dropped us at the airport 20 minutes before our flight left. And if you've watched the news, you've heard about the crazy lines, and the hundreds of stranded people. I frantically went in search of an Air Canada employee and waved one down.
Within minutes, our bags and car seats were checked, and we ran through security. By this time we had 5 minutes....before the plane left the gate. You know, so boarding would've ended by then. We were praying for a delay.
We ran and ran until Eva's little legs couldn't run anymore. So, with Kaitlyn in one arm, and Eva in the other, Nich took off jogging with me trailing behind. I will never forget the scene in front of me, both the girls bopping up and down, laughing hysterically, as he ran. It was quite the sight, and gave everyone a good laugh as we flew through the terminal.
Finally we got to our gate, and they announced a 10-minute delay. Perfect! We were ushered right on and the plane left on its way.... across the runway to sit in a line to de-ice the plane. One tantruming toddler and two diarrhea diapers later, we finally "blasted off" -as Eva likes to call it. I was envisioning a sleeping baby, and a toddler engulfed in Dora during the flight. But instead, after finding out the dvd player was broken, I got an unhappy, fidgety, starving (airplane pretzels for dinner) toddler and a wide-awake baby (who dumped her bag of Cheerios all over our seats, not once but twice).
Sigh. I was exhausted.
We finally got into Terrace, and it was such a relief and a joy to be there with family. We got our bags, and just needed the car seats. But, they never came. Apparently, they never left Vancouver.
So, Nich created a make-shift booster seat out of a trumpet case, for Eva. And, I was adamant that Kaitlyn needed a proper car seat, so a very sweet Air Canada employee offered to drive us home, so we could use her infant seat. I love small towns.
So, at 10pm, we finally arrived. Overtired and starved, but happy to be "home". The kids gleefully went straight to bed without a peep. And we cozied up on the couch, nibbled delicious Christmas treats, played games, and visited with family we were so looking forward to seeing.
It's going to be a very merry Christmas after all.
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