December 26, 2006 | Mama Smith

weary travellers

We have returned from London, and all you get is this lame iChat photo…

Okay, not really. We have hoards to share, but it’s now almost 1am UK time and we’ve had quite a doozy of a day so this is all for now. The siblings all went together and bought webcams for my folks and each other so we can “talk in person”. This is us goofing around on Christmas Day, learning how to use the thing.

Once we regain some sanity next week, I’ll return to the minismith world with lots of London stories and pictures to share. I can’t believe it has really been 11 days since my last post. Wow. That is a record-breaker in the life of minismith.com.

Today we woke up at 6:30am London time, 1:30am Philly time. We headed off to London Heathrow and hung out there until our 11:30am flight. It felt like an 8 hour daycare service in the confines of a long, thin room where the kids are required to sit in one seat the entire time with the 20+ children on board. Which actually made Brighton seem like a dream. He slept and flirted with fellow passengers and overall did a lot better than on the flight over there.

We arrived home around 3:30pm Philly time, frantically unpacking Matthew, picking up groceries for dinner and cash for his cab ride BACK to the airport at 6pm to fly out to St. Louis for the Urbana conference he has to attend for work over the course of the next 3 days.

We were even able to get Brighton fed, bathed and in bed by 5:30pm so we had some time alone together before the cab arrived. 6pm, no sign of the cab. 6:05pm, call from cab company saying that they can’t find our house. They were too busy to call earlier and let us know. The soonest they could get another cab to us would be 6:30pm. Thanks. But not helpful in the least.

6:10pm, we drag a peacefully, snoozing Brighton out of his cozy crib and dash out into the rain to load him into the car. 6:13pm, we’re all three headed back to the dreaded airport, no thanks to the lousy cab company. 7:40pm, I receive a call from Matthew that his flight was just delayed almost 2 hours. He won’t be getting into St. Louis until almost midnight. Seeing as they’re 1 hour behind Philly time, this means he will be arriving around 6am London time. Almost a full 24 hours of travel for the poor guy. And possibly having to rise as early as 6:30am to get started on conference necessities.

PRAY FOR US! We both need much energy and grace over these next few days. We are zonked and not looking forward to the next few days of being apart at such a sweet time of year. Thankfully my sisters arrive from London to stay with me and B tomorrow, for some much needed company and smiling faces. For now, I’m off to bed. Hoping B enjoys his long-lost crib enough to remain in it at least until the sun comes up tomorrow morning.