Five States in as many days!

Instead of flying into Minneapolis, Minnesota, our flight was detoured to Fargo, South Dakota due to snow. So we sat on the runway for a few hours waiting for the runways in Minneapolis to be cleared, the plane to be refueled, and a new departure time to be set. We finally arrived in Minneapolis 5 hours late and I had missed all the connections to DFW (my final destination in Texas) so after standing in line for another 2-3 hours, I had a ticket booked for Monday morning to go to DFW. As I'd been awake and in transit for 22 hours, I wasn't up for airport sleeping; so I spoke to a few strangers and decided to book a hotel together to split the cost ... I started with sharing a hotel room with one stranger and in 30 minutes it had gone to 4 of us ... so I suggested getting 2 hotels. I stayed with a girl called Melissa who was absolutely ace. If we lived closer, I'm sure we would fast become good friends. I'm telling you, being stranded in an airport makes you bond with strangers! Melissa and I headed to the hotel where we ordered some pizza and made snow angels (after all, when life gives you lemons, you got to make lemonade...or snow angels - either way :-)
Monday (Christmas Eve) I finally arrived in Dallas, Texas, where I was greeted by my niece, sister and Dad (thanks for making two trips to the airport!) We headed to Paris* via Chipotle (a Tex-Mex place, my sister's favourite) and Ikea. By the time I made it to Paris I think I'd been in transit around 42 hours. My family has a Christmas eve tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights, then coming home to open 1 present. This year we opened a present first (as that turned out to be our evening meal. My grandfather (a retired marine) sent over some MREs for us to try. I must say they weren't the best of food (not the worst either) but trying them was pretty cool! Thanks Papa!
Christmas was spent in Paris with my family. Normal family squabbles throughout the day, but that's what I'd expect. Dad forgot the turkey bag** so he went driving around to find an open store. This meant we opened presents a bit later and we ate a bit later, but the food was scrummy and we all ate too much. Around 6 some of my parents friends, the Schlutz, came over for Christmas desserts. I've met them over the last few years I've been to Texas and it was good to get to share dessert with their family.
Wednesday (Boxing Day) Cheryl, Scott, Madilyn and I headed for their home in Springdale, Arkansas, via Babies-R-Us in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We made it to the Savage's (my sisters) around 7pm. Scott emptied out the cars while Cheryl put stuff away and I explored their house (I say explored, Cheryl says noised round - potatoes/pototoes). I was super tired and wasn't up very long before I crashed in the spare room. I did however manage to watch a bit of the Simpsons in "Scott's Room" - a envy of any man. He's got it decked out with his transformer collection and the necessities - a fridge a projector and flipping big screen and some super comfy armchairs.
Thursday Cheryl had to take Max, the Savage's dog, to the vet - where he still is, bless him, he's not very well. We then went shopping. Shopping started around 2 and ended at 9 with a trip to the vets and meal at the Olive Garden (my favourite Italian restaurant in America) in between the shops. That's far too much shopping for me - I pushed my limits, but enjoyed the good bargains I got. I'm loving the dollar / pound exchange rate!!!
That brings us to today. I wanted to put some pictures up for you, but my sister's computer is not playing nice. So you'll just have to wait to see my pretty face again. When I asked what today's plan was, she said shopping :-)

*Paris, Texas of course - why would I have been heading to Paris, France, think about it :P

**Most Americans cook their turkey in a big plastic bag - a turkey bag. My father doesn't think it's possible to cook a turkey without a turkey bag.