Christmas 2024
Connor made it home for Christmas this year by flying by himself from SDSU to San Jose. Apparently, this time of year is always chaos at the San Diego International Airport as SDSU, UCSD, and USD are all
dismissed for Winter Break at the same time. Traffic in and out of the airport is always choked with cars, passengers have to wait in long lines to check in, and the weather inevitably plays a factor as well.
In any event, he had to catch the trolley that stops on campus to get to the Old Town station in downtown San Diego. From there he would jump on a free shuttle to the airport. His flight wasn't until after
2:00 pm in the afternoon. We figured this would give him plenty of time to wake up, gather his things, and get out the door to catch the trolley (it also factored in some time in case he got lost). We were so
worried that things would go wrong that we encouraged him to leave as soon as possible. Since his dorm on the day he left was to be closed for Winter Break at 10:00 am, he got up bright and early and left his
dorm room at 8:45 am.
It was a good thing he took the trolley because all roads leading to the airport were jammed (in the afternoon we heard people were sitting in traffic for nearly 2 hours). Since the trolley travels on tracks
and not the normal streets that all cars drive on he made it downtown in no time. He transferred to the airport shuttle at Old Town Station and didn't hit any really bad traffic until he got just outside the
airport. Once he made it inside the terminal he only waited at TSA for a little bit before heading to his gate. In the end, he sat down at his gate and waited 3 hours before boarding.
Christmas Eve was a quiet affair. Tyler was sick after he returned from Fullerton. He was blowing his nose constantly (in the first 2 days he was home he went through 3 boxes of Kleenex), so he decided to
stay home instead of joining us at Auntie Deanna's for dinner. Mom was making jook that wasn't quite ready when it was time to head up, so she decided to stay behind and joined him to keep him company.
Dessert time.
Christmas morning Mom made breakfast and we opened gifts. This year Connor received sunglasses, a video game controller, a Star Wars Lego set, t-shirts, a Squishmallow, and of course gift cards and money.
In the afternoon Dad picked up Grandma and Grandpa and we had clam dip, prime rib, mashed potatoes, and string beans for dinner.
Time to open gifts! |
Japangeles t-shirt! |
Miles Morales card! |
Another Japangeles t-shirt! |
Squishmallow! |
Star Wars Lego! |
New sunglasses! |
HIC t-shirt from Hawaii! |