THE LOST CHRISTMAS

My post below this, Christmas by Jenni, left out some of the major highlights of our Christmas. Such as, the numerous searches conducted for the numerous items that went missing this holiday season.

Friday night: Luggage. Mom swore a piece of luggage was missing. We searched cars, rooms and memories and it was determined all pieces of luggage were present and accounted for. What was missing was an item Mom thought she had packed. She had to endure the holidays without whatever it was she had packed in it. Since she and Dad had 5 suitcases between them, I felt confident she was well supplied in spite of the missing luggage.

Sunday night: Meghan's gift. I thought I was being so smart by having some of the items shipped so I didn't have to pack them and lug them up to Jenni's and Tim's. I had ordered something online for both Jenni and Meghan and had them shipped to Tim. Due to availability, two shipments were involved. When I went to wrap the gifts, Meghan's was missing. Tim remembered bringing it home from the office, but after that, nothing. It had apparently evaporated. We searched offices, closets, drawers and the sofa. Sofa? Yes. Because. Never found it.

Monday night: Cellphone. Tim lost his cellphone. So we searched cars, pants pockets, hoodie pockets, closets, drawers and the sofa. Again. It was found in a nook and/or cranny of Tim's car and it showed 9 missed calls. We kept calling it hoping to hear it.

Tuesday morning, early, when we should have left for the airport: Keys to the rental car. eeeeeeeeeeeek!!! Dad walked out to the garage, looked up on the hooks where keys are kept and asked, "Where are the keys?" I pointed out that he was the last one to drive the car. I heard an "uh oh" and he went into his room. I looked around at all the luggage and wondered just what he was going to search in his room. He came back out and started searching the sofa.

"Trust me", I said, "It's not there. Not unless you came out here in the middle of the night and dropped them there." He looked anyway. Then we started looking in luggage. And found them.

I grabbed them and hurried out to the car, announcing over my shoulder that I would back the car into the garage so we could load it out of the cold wind. I opened the garage door and found our car was an icicle. I started it, cranked up all of the heaters, defrosters and such and we started loading it while it was IN the wind. Meghan tried to scrape the windows by was having no luck.

FINALLY, the car was scraped, the luggage was loaded and we were on our way to the airport in Kansas City.

Five minutes later, from the backseat: I heard rustle, rustle, rustle. The unmistakable sound of Mom searching her purse. In the dark. I asked, "Do you need me to turn on the light?"

"No, I'm OK." rustle, rustle, rustle "I'm just looking for my photo ID."

I turned on the light.

About 15 miles later, it was found.

Jenni and Tim had left a couple of hours before us and were headed to Florida. Mom and Dad went to Texas and Meghan and I came back to St. Louis.

This evening, I got a call from my sister in Texas. "Have you heard from Mom and Dad?"

No

"They should be home by now."

I checked, their flight came in 3:00, it was now 7:30.

Oh great. They were missing and their cellphone was dead. We were discussing how to proceed. Then Dad called. They sat on the tarmac in Houston for a long time due to air traffic (and storms, I'm sure). After they landed, they found only one suitcase. The rest is missing.

I quit.