Billy and I had found a cheap flight home, but unsurprisingly that meant it had a less than ideal arrival time...in Baltimore. We were originally slated to arrive at 1 am, which meant we still had time to book a SuperShuttle back to Bethesda and let my parents have a full night of sleep. That plan was completely derailed when our flight was delayed two hours and after arriving in Baltimore at 3 am, we were informed that the wait for a SuperShuttle would be "at least two hours."
My dad has always insisted that I have a lifelong pass for calling him at all hours of the night for a ride (insert Daddy's Girl and only child comments here), so I reluctantly called the house to see if they could come rescue us from spending a night in the BWI terminal. After assuring my mom that I wasn't calling because of a medical crisis or other life threatening situation (remember, I'm an only child), my dad zipped up to the airport and saved us from being stranded by the baggage claim with the rest of the unfortunate souls who had been counting on SuperShuttle or similar transportation.
After spending the first day at home predominately catching up on sleep, we had an awesome time celebrating my birthday and Christmas. We broke tradition of going to Melting Pot to go downtown to see the Ellipse and eat at Old Ebbitt Grill in DC. I used to go to the Ellipse every year with my granddad when I was little, but I'd never seen it lit up at night and my mom and Billy had never gone at all. We caught a lucky break with the weather and smushed our way through the masses to take in the tree in all it's Christmas-ey glory.
Since Billy obviously spent Christmas with my family instead of his own, I decided to include some of his Christmas traditions with ours. Billy always went to church on Christmas Eve, so we headed to St. Dunsten's on Tuesday night for my first Christmas Eve service. Fortunately, St. Dunsten's caters to those of us who do not regularly attend church by providing everyone with essentially an idiot's guide to church that outlines all the song verses and even tells you when to stand/sit/kneel.
The special part about going to St. Dunsten's is that my parents got married there (as did two of my aunts) and my granddad was a founding member of the church. Unfortunately, I'd only ever been to St. Dunsten's for his funeral service as well as for my grandmother's, so I was eager to form some happy memories at the church and feel close to some Cardon family history.
Once we got home, each of us opened a gift (another great tradition started thanks to Billy!) which of course helped ease the anticipation for Christmas morning. It was really fun incorporating both of our families' Christmas routines into the holiday and hopefully helped Billy feel like a little piece of home was with him.
Now that I'm (sort of) an adult, the most exciting part about Christmas for me is watching other people open the gifts I've gotten them. Billy's gift arrived at the last minute (8 pm Christmas Eve), and after coming very close to having a panic attack that he would have nothing to open, I was super excited to see his gift finally arrive. Shutterfly sure knows how to make you sweat! Last year, I got made him a photo album of all the fun things we did in 2012 and after spending 4 weeks making it, I opted to go high-tech this and get one made through Shutterfly. I also waited until December 17 to start planning, so that may have had something to do with choosing Shutterfly over my own crafting skills...
After the Christmas festivities were over, the three of us headed out to the C&O Canal, which runs along the Potomac River, to another special Cardon spot. I also went there all the time with my granddad (as did my dad with his entire family when he was a kid), so we like to go to the canal whenever I"m home to say "hi" to my Granddad and take in the Maryland scenery. As much as I go on about Colorado, Maryland is also incredibly beautiful in its own East Coast way (even if it makes me sneeze a lot).
I spent the rest of the week fitting in as much time as I could with friends and family, the dogs, Lizzie, and of course Billy. I'm headed south for the winter again to Florida, so I had to say goodbye to Billy when he flew back to Denver on Saturday. I found it very hard to tear myself away from Colorado when we left last week, and while I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity that Florida brings, I'll be counting down the days until I get to see Billy and Denver in April!
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