What is there to say about visits home?
They're getting harder, and easier. Harder because now we're travelling with three kids, none of them babies but all of them under six. Just in terms of pure logistics it's getting challenging -- more tickets, more visas, more passports, more bags. (Coming back, we checked eight bags and a box. A large box.)
Easier because we're getting some of this stuff down to a routine. Security? Put bags inside bags whenever possible, drink the last water, loosen the shoelaces; Daddy goes through first of everyone and plays catcher, stroller comes next (to immobilize the two-year-old, who wanders), then kids shoes and jackets, then kids. There's still much room for improvement, but there are also moments of pride: three kids, two days, nine time zones, three continents. Just a couple of years ago, we could not have done this.
(I say "we", but Claudia is the organizing force. Yeah, I know that's a shock to everyone who knows us.)
And sometimes there's pure random chance. A confused trainee at the United check-in counter gave us upgrades that we were in no way entitled to. She also came yay close to getting our luggage miserably lost -- short-checked it, so that we had to retrieve it from the X-ray guys and recheck -- but I'll hear no word against her: we flew over the Atlantic business class. Mmm, business class. Won't happen again soon, so believe me, we savored.
In Munich I got online for a few minutes and went straight to the results from Iowa. Whooo. Prediction: Huckabee won't last. But Obama... well, I guess we'll see.
The house was cool but intact; the neighbor who was supposed to check the heat had obviously done so. Thank you, neighbor: No burst pipes this time. There was about 10 cm (4 inches) of new snow. We got in around 5 am, unpacked a little, ate cereal, fell into bed around 7, slept until three in the afternoon. I shoveled the driveway to get the car out, but then we remembered that Saturday was Armenian Christmas, so everything was closed. So Claudia made soup and we all watched a lot of Teen Titans cartoons (season Two, with Three and Four on deck) and played with Legos.
So we're back, for a little bit longer. We leave Armenia in just two more months. Strange to think... so, again, we should savor while we can.
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