Home sweet home!

Well that was a long day... or was it two days? I don't know, who cares, we are back on the island!
Saturday morning we hopped on the tube and headed to Heathrow... One hour later we were in a line up of Canadians at the Air Canada check in... as soon as I heard the "oh, sorry about that's" and the "excuse me, so sorry's" I knew we were headed home... Sienna was good as gold as usual as we sat in TGIFriday's having lunch... She flirted with the waitresses and surrounding babies and other patrons and had some french fries in peace, not knowing what the hell was going on! How I love that innocent cluelessness! We watched the Heathrow shoppers with their Chanel, Dior and Burberry shopping bags and I may or may not have drooled when I spotted a gorgeous, shiny gold chanel bag... But that's beside the point, we are talking about air travel here! Before we knew it we were heading to the gate and of course, first on the plane, greeted by a very friendly french Canadian with a thick mustache, who naturally fell in love with Sienna, oh and some sour-faced women who clearly aren't cut out for the "people person" industry of cabin crew-ing. Note one incident that familiarized us with one blonde-bobbed flight attendant: as she is closing the overhead compartments she stops, looks at the too-full compartment and says "who do these bags belong to?! This is too full! We cannot have all of these bags in here!" silence... "If NOBODY CLAIMS THESE BAGS I WILL DUMP OUT THEIR CONTENTS ON TO THE FLOOR AND YOU WILL BE FORCED TO PICK EVERYTHING UP WITH YOUR TEETH!" Okay, she didn't say that, but she said the bags would be "removed from the aircraft immediately..." Yikes, don't ask her any questions during the flight...
An hour in and we get our hot lunch... mmm... microwaved chicken... actually it was pretty good, and Sienna had the "roast" potatoes. The French canadian mustache offered everyone wine, literally, even Sienna, "WINE WIZ YOUR HOT LUNCH!? WINE?" He convinced us to have some and he gave us three bottles... Okay, he's really into us. The wine was worse than Sola Nero, so we didn't drink it! Then he came around with coffee and Kyle and I asked for one each and he gave us three (clearly had a crush on Sienna!) and then almost made her cry by making duck sounds very close to her face after she had just woken up!
Sienna then watched the animated movie "up," with no sound, and persisted to smile and giggle throughout the whole thing, then she snoozed. By the way, this movie seemed quite sad, but Sienna loved the old man in it!
Kyle and I watched "Funny People" not THAT funny... then "500 Days of Summer," and unromantic comedy, so good! Then Sienna woke up for a bit, passed out again as it was her bed-time, and I watched "Waitress," such a cute movie!
In spite of all the movies, the time couldn't go by any slower! I was so tired, congested and just fed up with my numb-bum! Of course the scary flight attendant came back for more hilarity when she almost stepped on someone's glasses and lifted them up saying "WHOSE GLASSES ARE THESE?! ARE THESE GLASSES YOURS? YOURS? YOURS?" Not something you ask someone who isn't wearing their glasses... Finally a man owned up... "I think they're mine... let me see..." as he inspected them she snapped "are they yours!?" and he nodded in terror... They were red and sparkly, I don't think they were his, but hey, at least he's making a fashion statement now!
Anyway, we finally see the lights of Vancouver as I see another female flight attendant eyeing us from across the aisles... She comes over and politely asks Kyle "have you had her in the snuggly the whole flight!?" we say no and she says "well you are not ALLOWED to use them on flights, EVER!" Oh, thank you for the information, have a lovely Christmas! By the way, that's the first we've ever heard of it, and have never been told to take it off on any other flights! I almost said, "listen lady, first of all, it's an 'ergo carrier' not a 'snuggli' and if this keeps my daughter safe and happy we will wear it, it's like a giant seat belt for god's sake, it's better than holding her on our lap!"
So we land and I am rushing because I know my family is waiting and I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THEM! We get through immigration quickly and wait for our bags... It takes 15 minutes but it feels like hours! We walk, okay run, to hand in our landing cards and rush through the slow people and I see my mom waving and Priya standing on the other side of the glass partition (reluctantly) and I see Rishi and Sarah and my Dad! I hug my mom and we cry and Sarah is crying too, Sienna just woke up from a nap so she's doing her serious face but gets passed around anyway and doesn't complain!
We had a great ferry trip home complete with buffet dinner where my shrunken stomach wasn't quite ready for a full turkey dinner... Good nonetheless! This cute little 18-month-old girl kept coming over as well to say hi to Sienna... She said "BABY!!" and tried to give Sienna kisses, but Sienna is not a fast mover, she pulled away... So the dad of the 18-month-old suggested she kiss Sienna's hand, so little Ava leaned forward and licked it! That's a good way to contract swine flu!
It took Sienna a few days to adjust to the time difference and I had a bad head cold, but after a few days of TLC from my mommy (and some shopping, that cures me too) I am all better and ready for the holidays! It has been great being with the family again, I've missed my dad's sense of humour and my mom's back-seat-driving... Love you guys!
It has been amazing to be home with our families, now we are in Nanaimo having a blast with the in-laws... Last night I got a little tipsy on my favorite wine, Cono Sur Gewurztraminer! The first time in a few months, it was lovely to sit around with the family and laugh like we used to, it really feels like we never left each other!
Sienna has now said another word as well, after getting reacquainted with the puppies (two labs, one black, one yellow... no longer puppies really) she started pointing at them and saying "Daw!" Then she met some cats and said the same thing... She's so smart, all furry animals will now be known as "daw"! Fine by me.
Anyway,
We are home, happy and enjoying every second of it! Happy Holidays everyone!
xoxo
Deborah, Kyle and Sienna