Well Kept Secret

I can finally share a very well kept secret on my blog.

Dave and I spent Christmas in Idaho this year - the first with his family for 20 years!

We had been planning the trip for about 9 months and it was to be a surprise for Dave's Mom. It was a surprise alright but it amazed us that she never cottoned on and I have to thank Dave's sister Debbie for keeping the secret. I know it wasn't easy for her.

Getting to Mom wasn't easy either since we flew via Chicago and the snow had ground the airport to a halt. We arrived from London only to be told that our flight had been cancelled. We were rescheduled to fly to Denver late the following day which mean't an overnight hotel stay. We tried desperately all day long to get an earlier flight as standby but there were so many others all hoping to fly standby that it proved impossible.

We finally made it to Denver just minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve but then couldn't get to a hotel - the airport was abandoned except for a few stranded travellers the same as ourselves. We spent a very uncomfortable night at the airport and were desperate by morning.

We were scheduled to fly out of Denver late Christmas day but then got lucky and got on as standby at the very last minute on an early flight so we finally arrived at our destination just in time for lunch.

Mom was soooooo surprised and since I was the first one she got a hold of I thought I was never going to draw breath again! She hugged me so hard I thought she was never going to let go - aawwww. I won't embarrass her by showing the photo of her blubbering like a baby!

Besides a few other things we took mom a continental quilt (duvet) as she mentioned in all the times she had been to the UK she'd always wanted one and never got one. We packed it in one of those vacuum bags and it worked really well.


It also mean't that I could be there personally to see everyone open the gifts I had made. I featured a sneak peek of this framed page on my blog and now I was able to see Sandy open it up. She is my new sister-in-love and I really loved spending time getting to know her better. I'm only sorry I will have to wait so long before we can do it again.

Deb's loved her family memory clock and it wasn't long before she had found a new home for it on the wall. I just love making these hand made gifts so I was pleased that they were well received.

I'm really glad we made this trip even ithough it mean't I had to forego a traditional 'English' Christmas dinner. I hope the memory is enough to last a very long time since I think from now on we're gonna stick to Spring or Autumn for the next trip.