And this could Only happen in My World…
It began like this: 
years ago, I bought my 18 and 21 year olds’ plane tickets to come from NY to Charlotte. I know: “What a GOOD Mommy!” Wait:
It was D-Day! I orchestrated one “know it all” child, coming from Iona, to be with the other “I’m a Princess” child, in Port Washington, Long Island, to catch the flight together at JFK… can you just feel my stress level here? How many times do you think I told each of them, “It’s Thanksgiving Day! Heaviest TRAFFIC day of the YEAR! Leave EARLY!”
I sent over the email, that contained flight info, told them to print it out, get to JFK 2 hours preflight, and I’d see you when they arrived! My husband and I had running bets, as to whether they’d make it. Again- does being a parent EVER end?
That morning I called the Princess at 7:50. “Are you getting ready? Flight leaves at 11:20 JFK!” She was still sleeping, and said, “Mom! My alarm is set for 8am. I’m going back to sleep!” What?? My hands were up in the air already before 8am.
The next text I received was from her saying, “Wait. I thought we were on Jet Blue?” This being 2 hours preflight- I texted her back saying, “Jesus CHRIST! Read the Ticket!!! You don’t want to get stuck NOW??”
Silence. I heard nothing for quite a while. That is not a good sign in Motherhood. Neither child wrote me. THEN- I got the text: “MOM?? You sent us to the WRONG AIRPORT! We are not flying out of JFK, we’re flying out of LaGuardia!” We had to pay a taxi driver $30 to drive us from Kennedy to LaGuardia, while the whole time, we were having anxiety attacks that we’d miss the flight!”
To them, I wrote back, “Why did you not read the ticket!?” To me, I’m saying the “parent mantra, OMFG. How could I have gotten the airports mixed up, and even better, how could they blindly trust me, and not look at their tickets? They KNOW how I am??”
They made it, don’t ask me how, all I know is, they almost got in a fist fight with the cab driver, who didn’t agree with a three dollar Tip! Not that I BLAME him?
I threw the turkey in the oven at 12pm, knew that we’d be picking them up at 1:20, and off we went to the airport! I knew I’d hear about it, for sure.
We found them, we hugged, kissed, laughed, pointed fingers, and on and on…and then the inevitable: Her luggage is not there. I asked, “Where did you CHECK it? ( thinking OMG which airport??) She said, as they were boarding the plane, the guy took it, and didn’t give her a ticket! Again, “WHAT the?” Two hours later, while still at the airport, virtually running in circles, we found her luggage- don’t ask.
We got home, the rest of the kids were outside waiting, excited, they hadn’t seen each other in 6 months, it was such a joy to see! The dogs went ballistic and of course ran off, which caused all of us to go chasing them, having not even stepped into he HOUSE yet!
Then into the house we went, and I didn’t smell the turkey! How many times can I say, “What the?” in one day?? I looked in the oven. It wasn’t ON. I turned on the Top Oven- Wrong! My white turkey was just laying there, doing Nothing!!!
So there went our early dinner, which was bumped up to 7:30.
I then find out from my son, that after they left the house that morning, he got a funny feeling, and asked her, “Wren, do you have the tickets?” She Did Not! Do you now see, where this child get’s it from? Like Mother, Like Daughter. Back they went to get the tickets. I can only imaging their faces when they presented thier boarding passes at the wrong airport! The ‘worldly travelers’ that they are- I’m amazed they knew to grab a cab!
The funniest part of all, is my son telling us that at the airport curb, my daughter put her hand up to grab a cab, not knowing that there are a million other people waiting in line! LOL! Lack of airport etiquette got her a lot of nasty looks from these NY’ers! Hahaha!
The bottom line was that they made it, we had a wonderful dinner, everyone told what they were thankful for while at the table, which is a family tradition, and our first announcer was our then, 14 year old, who said, “I’m grateful that we had the money to buy this food, cause it’s good!”
That set the mood for all who followed!
As much as I knew it was a mistake- we all headed out as a family for Black Friday! WATCH OUT!
NEVER has there been a family like mine!
These are the moments that I think back on, which have Definite “Sugar Mom” potential! Starting out as zany, and turning life into organized chaos, while holding our shoulders back and our heads held high!
Thanks for reading!