In the time between Decorating Elves set up and breakdown I have two to three weeks of just monitoring installations for any problems that might crop up. If I have someone that can run service calls for me, I can actually take some time for myself. This seemed to be one of those years.
I haven’t been able to visit my Family in Canada for quite a few years now and they certainly haven’t met baby Mia yet. This would be the perfect opportunity to introduce my family to Jessica and Mia. My cousin Darren offered to let us stay at his place. We have been very close since we were young children. He was my kinda my Canadian brother.
We flew up to Montreal and Darren picked us up at the airport. Our timing was great as everyone was off work for the Christmas/New Year’s break. It was great to see Darren and his family!
While in town we tried to see as many of my family as possible. There were nine children in my mom’s Italian family so you can imagine how many aunts, uncles, and cousins I have up there. Seeing all of them would be a herculean task. But, I was gonna give it a try. I started calling around letting everyone know I was in town, hoping we could plan some stuff with anyone available.
I really wanted to show Jes around the town but there was so much snow and low temps, the roads were a bit icy. Being raised in Florida, navigating icy roads is not in my skill set. Luckily, with everyone off work, there were plenty of hands to drive us around.
One of the nights we were there I decided to take Jes to a Cirque Du Soliel show. Their headquarters are in Montreal about 1 mile from my Aunt Mary’s house. It’s the house most of my mom’s family grew up in. The show was Varekai. It was one of their touring shows. We really enjoyed it. There were some very unique acts and I’ve seen a bunch of Cirque shows. I think I’ve seen 10 of them!
The next day we had lunch at my Cousin Lori’s house. She is Darren’s sister. I can’t believe how big her kids have gotten. I definitely have to visit more often. That night was our dinner at my Aunt Mary’s. All the remaining sisters in my mom’s family made it and a few of my cousins. It was great to reminisce about old times and have everyone get to know my girls. The best part was all the great food my aunt made. Boy was I stuffed! (And Very Happy)
One of our last nights in town was New Year’s Eve. My Cousin Darren was having a little get together with a couple other families. They were making pasta and sauce from scratch. I love family traditions like this! We also put a bottle of vodka in a tub of ice and set it outside to freeze. We played some cool Italian card games I’ve never heard of and had some great cocktails and shots of frozen vodka. Then after midnight, we went sledding in Darren’s back yard! Good times!
After recovering from New Year’s Eve it was time to head home. We packed up all our gear and headed to the airport. We said our goodbyes and flew off into the wintery sunset.
There was still a ton of bad winter weather all over the country. We hoped we wouldn’t get stuck anywhere. After arriving at our gate they came over the intercom and said they needed volunteers to give up their seats because the plane was overweight. They would give us vouchers for $425 each if we left on a later flight! Sign us up!
I love to work the system, so when they started rebooking us on other flights I asked what my options were. One of them was to fly through Washington D.C. When Jes heard this she asked how long our layover was. The gate agent told us that we’d have to stay the night at the airport and then we’d have about 3 options for flights out of D.C. I got her to give us a voucher for a hotel room and some meal vouchers. So now to figure out what to do in D.C.
Jes said that if we took the 2pm flight out of D.C. that would give us some time to do some sightseeing around our nation’s Capital. What a cool idea! All I have to do is rent a car for 1 day. So that’s what we did!
We arrived in D.C. later that night, rented a car and checked into the room. On the way we picked up some food. We got a good night sleep. In the morning we leisurely got up and had breakfast. Then it was off to the Capital!!
We saw the Washington Monument, the WWII Monument, Arlington Cemetery, The White House, the Treasury, the Smithsonian (Outside), and the Lincoln Memorial. And we did that in about 2 hours! If ya ever want to see our nation’s capital in under 3 hours, go over the holiday break when everything is shut down and its freezing cold out! It made it so easy to get around!
So to recap… We got a hotel, 2 meals, and two vouchers for $425 towards a future flight for leaving on a later flight. Not a bad deal if I do say so myself.
Happy New Year!!!
