Christmas 2009

Well, friends, I must say Christmas 2009 was an exercise in logistical savviness!  This was the first Christmas in 4 years that the whole Flynt family was to be together.  Abbie was coming in from D.C., Jack and fam from St. Louis, and Jason and I from Altus.  The first anomaly was the snowstorm forecast for Altus AND Lubbock.  Jason and I decided we better hit the road a day early so as not to get stuck on bad roads.  We took Harley the Cat with us, and that made for an exciting trip.  She laughed in the FACE of the homeopathic meds the vet gave her for calm travel and proceeded to foam at the mouth and barf 3 times before we even made it to Hollis.  Thankfully I had some of the 'good stuff' with me.  Jason pulled over to the side of the road and while he cleaned  up all the barf, I held the little maniac between my knees and forced the pill down her throat (she hates medicine, so this is necessary).  Let me tell YOU.  Because her stomach was empty, she was ZEN in less than 5 minutes.  And by zen, I mean higher than a KITE.  I was actually a little worried, but this was preferable to her previous state of mania.  (She finally returned to normal about 24 hours later.)  Anyway, I digress.  We had smooth sailing to Lubbock after that, yay us!

I wish I could say it worked out that way for the rest of the family.  Abbie was supposed to land in Lubbock before lunch on Christmas Eve.  She flew AA through DFW.  Big mistake.  It is my experience that all AA pilots on the DFW - LBB route will do anything in their power to cancel the flight if it looks like there is even a minute chance they'll get stuck in Lubbock for any reason.  And cancel they did.  Then she moved to another flight.  Delay.  Delay.  Cancel.  New flight.  Standby.  Delay.  Cancel.  By bedtime, she gave up the fight and retrieved her bags.

Jack, Jenna, and Natalie flew Southwest through Love Field in Dallas.  Everything was ON TIME for them...until it wasn't.  Delay.  Delay.  Delay.  Delay.  Cancel.  So Jack rented a minivan (hahahahaha!), and they drove to DFW to retrieve Abbie.  "Drove' is a strong word.  They slid.  Then they slid on to my aunt's and uncle's house in Forth Worth where they spent the next 2 days waiting for the roads to clear enough to drive to Lubbock.

By December 26th, we were finally all together!  Woo hoo!  We then proceeded to have a lovely time of eating, dominoes, eating, Wii, eating, and eating.  Here are some fun pics. :)

Pretty tree,

That is an absurd amount of snow for Lubbock.

It looks like Mom is growing out of the turkey.  That was a GOOD turkey.

The Christmas Eve dinner that ended up just being for Mom, Dad, Jason, and me.

Harley LOVES presents.

Harley does NOT love having her picture taken.

Waiting for Santa!

Jason worked hard on this picture.

Christmas in Dimmitt.

Fam.

My cousin Taran.  This says it all.

Presents!

More presents!

And more!

MORE!

Abbie knows me.

That is one good looking cat.

In case anyone was wondering, Natalie does not have a small footprint when she travels.

The snowman Jack and Natalie made.