Leaving....

The last few days passed in a blur, constant packing and sorting of the house, multiple farewells, Christmas celebrations, 40th birthday parties and wedding celebrations. Saying goodbye to the animals was hard but they are all off to amazing homes for the year (thank you MD, El, Bek and Kate/Christian). After the final clean of the house on the Sunday night we all slept over at Di and Evan's (thank you!) to make the up and out easier on the Monday morning and in the biggest uber (to squeeze in all the cases) we finally got to the airport. Turns out it's one of the busiest airport days of the year but after a little 'elfing around' we were quickly on the plane. 15 hours to Houston, as normal Dexter didn't move from his seat and was glued to as many programs as he could watch - Archie lasted about 20 min before wanting to check out the inflight destination map to see whether we were nearly there.... then managed to wiggle his second tooth out - leaving us wondering if there is a airplane toothfairy?? Leaving the plane in Houston saw us leave our first items to airport lost property - the airplane neck pillows.... This was better than realising that the car seat was still in the baggage area once we had gone through security - turns out you can get back through the big no entry doors but only with a lady literally glued to your side and passing back through the Xray machines. As we are now state-side only seemed right for us all to have a burger - didn't rate very highly for the boys who now appear to have very high standards in the world of burgers. Small 2 hour plane ride and we land in Raleigh, North Carolina for a family welcome and 2 weeks on the east coast - starting to feel a lot like Christmas....