Christmas Eve dawned frigid and steely gray and our single unit heating system was working overtime. Under normal circumstances the day would have been perfect: we had warm shelter, the Christmas tree lights twinkled on and off throughout the day, we had food on the table and were lucky to be all together … we also had seven guests coming to supper that evening, foreign students who couldn’t afford to go home to Japan, Germany or Mexico for the holiday season. Those thoughts alone lifted my spirits as we went about preparing breakfast that morning.
Our car, out on the street, was completely immersed under fresh snow and my husband needed energy to dig it out with a shovel. We whipped up pancakes with maple syrup, Canadian bacon and scrambled eggs as little one fed herself with her hands, happy and oblivious to the snowy chaos outside, two new bottom teeth peering out of her gums.
Foreign students dined with us that night, sang Christmas carols, and eventually went home as another storm system made its way to our area that Christmas Eve night. We had shoveled out a space for our car in the street and placed a “Reserved Spot” sign which we attached to a broomstick and stuck into a large pot filled with packed snow. We were pleased that no one had taken advantage of the cleared spot once we vacated it to drop off our guests back at their dorms. That reserved spot had taken my husband most of the day to dig out!
Just as a very first Christmas should be, our baby opened presents, early on the 25th, stuffed Buche de Noel into her mouth, and clapped her hands as she tried her voice in our carol sing-along. Her favorite present that day was a brown and shiny teddy bear.
By December 26 Burlington had received more than 30 inches of additional snow as a heavy, freezing ice blanket covered the streets.
By now it was evident we were not flying out that night. Our plan had been to fly from Burlington to New York’s Kennedy Airport and from there get on the nightly Pan American flight. After placing a long distance phone call to my parents, and several calls to the local Burlington airport and the Pan Am offices in New York, I sadly concluded that we would not be on that night’s flight. The airline was indulgent and willing to alter our reservation. We tentatively decided to reserve for the following night, December 27. In the wee hours of that night prior to our re-scheduled flight, I made my way to the window several times looking up at the sky, praying for the sleeting to stop.
Miraculously, by 8 that morning the snow seemed to end completely. We certainly had had a mammoth of a storm, a blizzard in fact, roads were treacherous; TV and radio reports announced we had been hit with 13 more inches of fresh snow on top of the ice. A total of almost eight feet since the snowstorm had begun. They were labeling this system, the ‘Christmas blizzard of the century”! Soon after breakfast, we went back out to clear the new snow from the car so as to have it ready to leave at a moment’s notice. By now I felt confident that we would leave that night. The flight from Burlington left at around 5 PM leaving plenty of time to get ready and play with my baby; bags were ready to go.
Although the runways had been cleared, the areas surrounding them were covered with ice and some new snow. Walking there was utterly hazardous, let alone run!
To make a long story short, we did fly out of Burlington that early eve in a packed Mohawk Airlines flight into Kennedy airport. Once there, we ran along with baby, car seat, large teddy-bear and carry-on bags to the international terminal and then on to the awaiting plane as the in-flight crew began their check list duties and to latch the airplane's doors. Finally seated and exhausted, a voice came over the loud speaker announcing that due to some difficulties we would not take off for another 50 minutes!
The flight attendants were immediately delighted with my baby who was displaying some of her finest grins. After some time one of the attendants warmed-up our little one's bottle of milk and she settled, rather uncomfortably, in the attached little crib they had set-up for her between cabins. Despite her feet sticking out, she “swigged” her milk and quickly fell asleep … my angel! “is it right to be taking her out of her customary existence? I wondered whether taking a baby overseas was safe? I was so young and worried to be hurting my child in any way… everyone says travel is the best education! This is our babe's first overseas trip.
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