New Zealand Adventure: Christmas Vacation MI: Part I

Hello All!
Happy New Year!

Before I recap my Christmas Vacation home to Michigan, I'd like to post a few pictures of the creepy Whitcoull's Santa. He is apparently an Auckland tradition although in years past he was even more sinister looking and had a "come hither" mechanized finger.

Now to get to the trip. I left at 3:40pm on the 19th of December and, after around 20 hours of travel, arrived at about 10pm on December 19th...go figure. Anyways, my first stop was to be Christian and Lisa Ast's Holiday Party on my way home from the airport, but alas, since my flight from Chicago to Detroit was delayed 4 hours, I missed that opportunity. My mom picked me up at the airport and I arrived at my parents house around 11:30pm. Fortunately she had brought my "Nanuk of the North" winter coat with her, so I didn't freeze to death on the way to the car.

My parent's Christmas tree in the great room.

Oops, well, OK, actually, let me go back a bit. The flight home did have another major glitch besides the flight delay in Chicago. So, I couldn't think of a good gift for my dad for Christmas, and my mom said that he didn't need anything and she had no clue what he wanted. After much deliberation, I finally decided to get him some New Zealand liquor from the duty free store at the airport. I arrived at the Auckland airport with plenty of time and checked my bag, then went to the store to see what they had to offer. I found some New Zealand gin that seemed perfect. It was even on sale! I had never done duty free shopping before, so I asked the salesman how it worked. He asked me where I was going and I said the USA. Then he said that I could just carry it on the plane. I thought that that didn't sound quite right to me, but I figured that he must know what he was talking about. And he did...sort of. What he failed to take into account, and for my part, I failed to mention, was that I had connecting flights within the US. So I land in LA with the gin in my carry-on backpack, no problem, and it wasn't until I was going back through security at LAX that I realized that the liter of gin in my backpack was not only prohibited because it was alcohol, but was way over the 3oz liquid limit! So they "kindly" directed me to go back to the American Airlines counter where the "helpful" AA agent suggested that if I didn't have a box for the gin, that I should check it inside my backpack. Now I know that all of you are thinking that checking a glass bottle in a backpack is a profoundly stupid idea, and had I not been jetlagged from a 10 hour flight and concerned about catching my connecting flight, I'd probably have agreed with you, but at the time, it seemed like the thing to do. It wasn't until I was walking away from the counter and my backpack was zooming along the belt, that it struck me that my backpack is made of nylon cloth and not very likely to protect the glass bottle well. But by then it was too late. Fast forward to me and mom at the luggage claim in Detroit when before we even saw my backpack, the passengers surrounding the belt started sniffing the air as a great wafting cloud of gin fumes rolled down the belt. Needless to say, the gin bottle didn't make it, and we were unable to recover any drinkable gin from my soaked backpack, although fortunately my camera and cell phone inside still worked after the gin evaporated. Sorry, dad, no Christmas present for you.

Now, where was I? Oh yes, so no party for me on the 19th, but I had plans on the 20th to meet James and Carolyn in Novi for dinner. Sadly, I'm a dope and took no pictures of this festive outing which included diner at Olive Garden, a trip to 12 Oaks and a neat little tea shop called Teavana?, and dessert at the Melting Pot! This was the first driving for me in about 9 months and I took my parents Saturn View. I managed to stay on the correct side of the road, and even handled the snow that night with relative ease.

Here is where I will begin counting the hours traveled in the View or HTV: 2.

Snow, a pig pen, and llamas across the street from my parent's house.

Next, on the 21st, I had lunch with my friend, Colleen, at a polish restaurant in Wyandotte called Polonis. Pierogies = bliss. Again, I brought my camera, but failed to take any pictures. Since my mom picked me up and dropped me off from this event, no recorded hours for the HTV.

On the 22nd I had lunch with my high school biology teacher, Ms. Scheibner, and finally remembered to snap a photo.

A little off center, I admit.

But that day I also drove out to Milford to have dinner with Dr. Krieger, whom I'd worked with before leaving for NZ. No pictures again, oh well. HTV: 3. Total HTV or THTV: 5.

On the 23rd it was off to the farm to spend the night with Scott's family at his parent's home in Charlotte. Here, I brought out the camera and enjoyed a wonderful night of gourmet food, family, and fun. This included a phone call to Scott that was necessary to translate the half-letter I received from Marty and David and the half-e-mail Scott had received from his parents explaining their Christmas gift to us, a night out (very clever)! There was also a minor snafu with Scott's dad's gift that I won't get into, but let's just say it seemed to be an off Christmas for dads this year! HTV: 4. THTV: 9.