My sister's flight from Jacksonville to Cincinatti (which was to be the first leg of her trip here this morning) was canceled yesterday, but luckily they traded her a direct flight arriving at 8 pm. Bill brought me home from work at 6 and I did just a little more prep before Mom and dad arrived around 7. Bill's mom, Nancy, had helped him set and decorate the table, and they were already started making ham rollups when I got home (if you're not familiar with them, to make ham rollups you take standard rectangular ham slices, spread them thinly with cream cheese, roll them up with a length of green onion in the middle, and slice into bit-size pieces. This is a tremendously popular finger food wherever we take it). We also had a lovely brie stuffed with dried fruit from The Produce Station, and we sat around the kitchen with drinks and chatter until Dad and I left to pick up Sarah.

Coordinating with cell phones, we knew exactly where Sarah was and she got her bags only just before we arrived before her baggage claim door, so the timing turned out really well. We told her when we were there and she should come out, and it would have been perfect if we could have swung up in front of that door, but for some odd reason they had a two police vehicles lined up in what would have been the approaching lane and a policeman standing a lane out from the curb but otherwise right in front of the afore-mentioned door, waving at people to keep moving. We paused next to him to ask if we could stop and pick up my sister, who at that point was only three feet behind him. He waved us over to the curb and it didn't add much trouble in our case but it was a small exercise in absurdity anyway.

But Sarah was in good spirits, having taken advantage of the extra time in her day to have a nap and a nice lunch out with friends and such. Knowing that Bill and the moms were making dinner while we were gone, I called ahead when we were getting close to let Bill know to put the noodles in to boil. Actually, all I said on my end was "Hi! Yep. See you soon!" When I got off the phone, Sarah said "I didn't hear you mention putting the noodles on." Dad said, "Spooky, isn't it?" I explained how Bill had answered with "Put the noodles on?" after my initial greeting, and Sarah said "You are so married!" It gave me a warm and silly feeling inside.

So then we had a nice dinner, with flaming ice cream for desert (really it's the fruit and high proof rum that are flaming, but it sounds more dramatic that way), mom and dad went home, and I wrapped a little more and we all went to bed. It's kind of nice having both of our guest bedrooms occupied. We should do this more often! I hear someone else moving around now, so I should go be social.

(It's my sister! We've already had our first fit of giggles! This is going to be a fun day!)

I wish you all the most merry of days, however you are spending it.

Huge hugs,

--Anne