Christmas in Review

I'm going to hit the highlights because I don't think I have the energey to recap the whole thing.

First - the burglary...I mentioned in my last post that we got the stuff back. According to the neighbors, who are very upset about the whole thing, we assumed it was a friend of the (early 20s) kids who had the party. However, the neighbors say that there is a son in the family who is a drug addict and has stolen/broken into homes in the past. So, perhaps getting our stuff back wasn't really the impressive act we thought and was more just the dad asking his son for the stuff back. Either way, we have it back and will be more careful in the future. However, to add insult to injury, the same family (immediately next door to us) had *another* party on Christmas Eve, only this time with a live band. I was so not in the mood. The music was actually so loud that in *our bedroom* Joe and I had to talk loudly to be able to hear each other. Try putting a two-year-old to sleep with her saying "Listen, mommy, music!" at midnight. I finally fell asleep around 1am when the band quit playing and they started in on karaoke. Sort of hard to have the quiet family-focussed time we were hoping for, you know? The only good part was that the music was pretty decent (PR Christmas music, which is way more festive than the American version).

Second - Christmas Eve was tons of fun. We went to the beach with everyone. Ellie is at an age now where she loves the sand and the waves. She also loves my brother who is great at playing with her and teasing her and so on. All he has to do is look at her and she squeals in laughter and terror. After spending several hours at the beach, we went home, rested, and then went to church. The service was very nice with great music. I really enjoyed it - both getting to sing all my favorite Christmas songs and listening to the choir. Ellie spent most of the time in the nursery with Evelyn (we sort of wanted her with us but was dying to see Evelyn) and I went to get her just before the end of the ceremony. She held my candle (with my hand on top of hers) and thankfully didn't try to touch it. She got to blow out mine, Joe's, and my mom's which made her night. There was a moment near the end where I was singing O Holy Night, holding Ellie and the candle, standing next to Joe and my mom with my dad, brother and SIL in the pew, where I just felt to blessed to be there with my entire family - happy and together.

Third - Christmas itself was also a nice, very relaxing day for most of us. Joe was sick for the vast majority of the day (some kind of stomach flu/food poisoning) and the rest of us sat around and opened sticking presents and then regular presents. Not surprisingly, Ellie was the star of the day. She is at the perfect age for opening presents. She doesn't have any greed in her yet so she was completely content to open a present and then play with it until someone asked her to open another present. There was no crying or begging to open more, which was nice. She crashed hard and took a nap (falling asleep in about 3 seconds) around 11:30 (instead of her usualy 10 hours, she had only gotten about 7 due to the party next door). When she woke up we...opened more presents. I had asked everyone to sort of try to reduce the number of presents she got this year, but she still ended up with a ton of stuff - books, toys, and a pair of fleece pajamas for when we go to New Mexico. She insisted on wearing those until she was a little ball of sweat. The best presents, from my perspective, were the baby stroller, crib, and high chair. She seems to really like all three and spent much of the day putting her baby in all three. I knew she would like those presents, but I had an ulterior motive in that I'm hoping that having her own "baby" will make the arrival of her little brother a slightly smoother transition.

I'm stuck at work today but the rest of the family is at home hanging out together. Hopefully, the day will pass quickly.

American Airlines Takes Special Care of Military Service Members' Children During Christmas Flights

I have a strict anti-spam policy and I absolutely hate those chain letters that people forward, but this is from a guy my husband actually knows. I assume he sent the email out of frustration and in the hope that publicity might help American provide some sort of remedy. I don't know that posting his email in my LJ really helps that much, but I thought I'd do my part.


I will never forget Christmas 2007 listening to my 14-year-old daughter on December 22nd crying on the other end of the phone from the American Airlines counter at the Orlando, Florida airport, “This means that I will have to spend Christmas alone without you or Mom.” In the background I could hear the American Airlines representative telling my former spouse, “Ma’am, you need to move aside, your children’s luggage is in the way and I need to help the next customer.”

Rewind:

Several months before Christmas, I called American Airlines direct in order to purchase round-trip tickets for my two children (Morgan 14 & John Henry 13) to fly from Orlando, Florida to Honolulu, Hawaii in order to spend Christmas with their stepmother and I during their holiday break from school.

Having served more than 25+ years (and still serving) in the military, I was familiar with the requirement for an escort with reference to unaccompanied minors; hence, booking directly with an American Airlines representative. This allowed the representative to reserve the tickets for 24 hours allowing their mother the ability to purchase one ticket and I could purchase the other ticket since we are required to split the transportation costs for the children’s visitation.

Upon booking / reserving the tickets, the American Airlines representative had full knowledge that these tickets were for two unaccompanied minors. She reinforced this by ensuring that I understood that the cost of the tickets did not include the “escort fee” of which would have to be paid at the American Airlines counter the day of the departing flight, and then again at the counter on the return flight.

Sometime after purchasing the children’s airline tickets, my former spouse’s father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease and the doctors could not determine how long he would have to live. Since both children would be with me during Christmas, my former spouse scheduled a short four-day trip (incl. Christmas Day) to take her father to the Bahamas, since this might possible be his last opportunity to travel.

As the days approached closer to Christmas, the children’s excitement grew.

On the scheduled departure day, my former spouse arrived at the American Airlines counter at the Orlando Airport with both children well over two hours prior to the departure time, only to be told that they would not accept the children to fly unaccompanied. The American Airlines representative explained that since the last leg of the flight had the children changing airlines from American to Hawaiian Airlines, they could not fly. It seems that there had been a policy change since originally purchasing the tickets. To make matters worse, American Airlines representative made it clear that these were “non-refundable” tickets (in excess of $2,500), and there were no available seats on any American Airlines flights for several days.

Both my wife and I are “American Airlines Advantage Members” but the reality is, this does not afford any advantage whatsoever.

Thank You & Merry Christmas to American Airlines…

Sincerely,

JOHN F. SPENCER III
MAJ, IG
US Army Pacific IG
Chief, Ops Branch

john.f.spencer@us.army.mil
(808) 232-3133