In Room 23 25: Texas Bound

Well, my adventure of Christmas vacation began very shortly after I booted the kids out the door. Over a month ago, I had this great idea that Christmas break would be a great time to visit my good friend Jessica and her husband Grant in Texas. Grant is in Air Force pilot training and while they spent over a year in their previous location in Mississippi I never had the chance to visit. I knew that I wanted to make a trip but there was a big question about getting there. Initially, the idea was that I could convince enough people that a stupendous road trip was in order and we would drive. However, everyone wanted to go home and see their families and shot me down faster than I could stay on my feet.

Plan B was thanks to our good and wonderful friend Rita who offered me her husbands frequent flyer miles for the trip. I've found that nothing usually works much better than last minute plans so we got the tickets on Wednesday night to fly out Saturday morning. : ) Easy flying both ways and plenty of time for me to read two books front to back.

I got there Saturday around noon and we spent the day catching up, visiting the Naval Air Station where Grant is learning to fly a T-something (sorry, I have no memory for numbers), and visiting the beach. I got to sit in the simulator where pilots practice flying without actually flying and put my feet in the Gulf. It was cold but that hasn't stopped me before. I waded in up to my knees but didn't have extra clothes with me so decided to stop there. We also took around Flat Stanley who was sent to Jessica and Grant by Grant's mom's first grade (?) class so that he could report back to IL what South Texas is like. We completed our evening with Wii playing, a movie, pizza, and late night "teacher" talk. They have a great little apartment with an excellent, comfy couch and amazing TV/projector set up that definitely enhances all video/tv/Wii experiences. On Sunday, we went to church, lunch, and then Jessica and I shopped. I have to say it was a little strange to be in someplace so warm (65 and sunny) so close to Christmas but that didn't lessen the crowds out to get their last minute gifts. There aren't very many Christmas trees but lights on palm trees made up for it. They were also still playing "snow" Christmas songs on radio which I thought was a little odd since that doesn't happen very often in South Texas but tis the season so I guess they play it anyway.

I met a lot of their church and pilot friends who were all very friendly. I learned or at least heard more about planes, flying, moving, and the military more than ever before but it was great to have the chance to be in a completely different place out of my normal element just hearing and talking about what makes people "tick" and realizing how similar we really are even when we live completely different lives. On Monday, we decorated cookies with a couple of moms and their children from Jessica's church before I flew back to IL. Having both grown up in the country, we had never had the experience of a house full of kids playing, coming and going, and just hanging out, and what an exciting experience it was! Mostly, we just stayed out of the way until all the kids had sugared up and left the table and then we sat down to decorate a few of our own. It was fun to have the chance to relax and do something as simple as frost a cookie and add some sprinkles. I headed out on Monday afternoon hopefully giving Jessica and Grant the time they needed to pack up and ready themselves for their drive back to IL on Wednesday. It was great trip and I'm so glad and grateful to have such generous and loving friends!!