Christmas surprise

Well, where to start!? I actually starting writing this post about 2 weeks ago when I first arrived in Memphis and yet here I am, 2 weeks later back in Oz. So I guess i'll catch you up :)

About a month ago, after American Thanksgiving my dad emailed me and basically said...I want to fly you home for Christmas to surprise your mom. We miss you and Christmas just won't be the same without you. And my response was...what?! and then there were some tears involved. Let me preface by saying, I love my family and of course I would love nothing more than to be able to spend Christmas with them...but when you've gotten settled into your new home and life in another country and had already prepared yourself to be away from your family at Christmas, it was just a big curve ball that I wasn't expecting. So after a week of secret phone calls to my dad, me making a pro and cons list, and getting advice from my friends and family in oz I finally decided I would go "home" for Christmas. I say "home" like that because lets face it my definition of home has drastically changed over the last several months and although I grew up in Memphis, I don't consider that my home anymore, its where my parents live.

So after tearful goodbyes in Oz, Delta canceling my flights out of Sydney, more tears (thank you Delta), 20,000 free frequent flyer miles (again, thank you Delta), 2 long and 1 not so long flights, slept 2 nights on a plane, visited airports in LA, Atlanta, and Memphis and all together 32 hours of traveling (that was only suppose to be 18 hours) I arrived in Germantown to surprise my mom and yes, it was totally worth it :)

To say the least I think I was actually only "home" for about 12 days but with travel time I was away about 2 weeks. It was a whirlwind trip. I got to spend a day in Little Rock, catching up with my friends and coworkers there. We had family arrive from out of town to spend Christmas with us. And of course I got to visit with friends and family in Memphis. It was a good trip, a long ways to go for such a short amount of time but it was great to spend Christmas with my family.

Thankfully my trip back to Oz was less eventful that my trip there, the only really bad thing was the entertainment system on the plane was broken so for our entire 14 hours and 55 minute flight we didn't get to watch any movies. I'm not going to lie, I was seriously hoping that would turn the plane back to LA and get it fixed but no. Next time I'm taking movies to watch on my laptop! When I did arrive in Sydney I was going through Customs and Immigration and I got pulled aside because there was a "problem" with my visa...I immediately starting thinking, "oh no, they are not going to let me in the country and put my back on that stupid plane with no movies right back to LA"...thankfully it was just my middle name missing from my paperwork, which for some reason they didn't catch it when I arrived again in August.

And here I am, home again in Oz. Its good to be back. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind and a tad overwhelming but i'm ready to get back into a routine and ring in the new year :) Lots to do today...mostly trying to stay awake, unpacking etc but i'll post again soon with some Christmas pictures :)