Christmas time was a blast

Well, aks, inc. WAS off to a good start. We planned to be in BG by about 3:30...then the Adam dude realized he couldn't get his schedule so off to a detour to Kroger's. Once inside the K store we discovered it wasn't just the parking lot that was a madhouse! Kroger still didn't have a schedule ready (after all, why would we want our people to know when they need to be at work) so off we went to Bowling Green with plans to go to Chicago on Christmas day.
We spent the evening enjoying a very excited Drew as he waited for the appearance of Santa. For the first time he realized all the fun that Christmas had to offer. We would have loved to be able to join his Christmas morning excitement. Next year Aidan will join in the Christmas excitement but for now, he is content to sit and giggle on my lap or grandma's. Andy and Holliday will have a fun time with two boys from now on. They are enjoying it now that life with an infant is a bit more manageable. It was good to spend time together for Christmas. Church as a family on Christmas eve is one of our most important traditions.
AKS, inc had a different type of adventure to embark upon for Christmas day though. Early in the morning before the sun was up, we were attempting to make a 6:15 a.m. train to Chicago. Grandma was so confused. She thought she was going on a bus and then she didn't know where we were going. It is just a tough thing to do to clear the cobwebs from upstairs these days.
Once we were finally aboard, I thought "Great 4 hours to sleep and that leaves 1/2 hour to gather everyone and everything together!!" Oh, but little did I know... Chatty Kathy followed me to my seat and sat next to me chattering for almost4 hours. I had no idea grandma had so much to say at that hour of the morning :) We talked about the bus and where were we going to end up?!? We talked about the fact that this bus was a train and it was headed for Chicago. We talked some more about what we were doing for Christmas and when was Christmas anyway?? Then when Chatty Kathy went to sleep for a few minutes, a very tired AKS was settling in with eye pillow and everything to take a short snooze. Oh it was some good sleep... for about 15 minutes. Suddenly a thud on my arm and then another followed by "mam, mam" "here is a pillow for you." OK if I was looking for a pillow, someone forgot to tell my sleepy eyes this as they were already closed!! Well, goodbye sleep because Mr. Porter, sir managed to wake up Chatty Kathy too!! Thus begins another round of where is this bus taking us?
The "trainbus" landed us in the Chicago Union Station right on schedule. We were eager to detrain but refrained until most people were off since we make a train of our own and it is a slow one. Besides, by the time I retrieved the wheelchair which was rows behind us when everyone was exiting the train ahead of us, last place for detraining was our only option. Not a problem, then we can be a slow train of our own. Grandma on her feet and attempting to put coat on and keep oxygen tubing tangling to a minimum.
Well, that was fun. We are now "detrained". A porter appears and says she will call a redcap because we can't get the wheelchair up the stairs until they pick us up. So, we wait... and we are still waiting... and we are still waiting...finally, the porter comes off the train with her luggage in hand. She says, "I'm just going up here to speed that red cap up". I can only think...maybe we will still be standing there when the train leaves again at 9 p.m. Finally, a beep and another beep and there is a cart in sight... he pulls up beside me, stops but wait his cart is full. He says, "I'll be right back". Hmmm. I think I have heard this somewhere... 15 more minutes go by "Is that another beep beep?" Why yes it is... he drives past but this time turns around and comes back to us. We load all of our STUFF onto the cart and I wonder if there will be room for us. Sure enough, we all fit with our stuff. Off to baggage claim. There is the whole crew of people from our train and baggage hasn't started rolling out yet... maybe it wasn't quite as long as I thought. Baggage retrieved without a hitch!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!! to us :)