This Christmas was special for our family because Brett was given the opportunity to come home for two weeks. It had been 4 months since Brett has set foot in our home. Brett flew into Austin very late on Dec 18th. I was so excited and nervous the whole day that I just had to stay busy so I wouldn't drive to Austin way too early. I ended up cleaning the entire house a little too much. It was nice to have it so clean though. I didn't drive to Austin alone, I had some good friends come with me, Tanner and Sami. They wanted to surprise Brett.
We got to the airport sooner than I thought and had about 30 minutes before his flight would arrive, but once we were there the evil arrival screen said that his flight had been delayed by an hour and a half. I was very irritated that I just kept walking in circles, tried sleeping but nothing worked. Tanner then went for a walk and came back with wonderful news. The flight was only delayed 5 minutes and would arrive in 10 minutes!!!! Boy did this make me happy. If you are unfamiliar with the Austin airport the ground floor is baggage claim and public entrance. You have to go up escalators for the gates, so I stood at the bottom of the escalators waiting....When I first stood there waiting there wasn't that many people. Then as passengers started coming down the escalators all of a sudden there were people everywhere. No idea where they came from.
At the top of the escalators you could only see the legs of people so every time I saw military legs I got excited, but then disappointed. Then another pair of legs appeared and there he was, standing on the escalators looking in the crowd for me. Brett then spotted me and my heart skipped a beat just like the first time I looked into his eyes. Once he reached the bottom of the stairs I tried to run to him, but another military family stopped right in between us with their reunion..grrr. Then finally we were in each others arms and once again I started crying. So happy to have my wonderful husband back.
I hear there are pictures of our reunion, but not on my camera. It died just as we were about to embrace. If I get copies I might share them.
This reunion is bitter sweet because we knew back in August that Brett would be coming home around Christmas time, but to stay. Come to find out in November that he has training until March!! So instead of having Brett home for good, it was only for two weeks. They were wonderful two weeks. I had the 24th-31st off with paid holiday leave, so I just took vacation the 20th-23rd. So we truly had two weeks together. It was our first Christmas holiday that neither of us had to work. We were able to see our three fabulous families (Blackhurst, Jones, and Johnson) and enjoy Christmas and Birthdays. We also spent time with our wonderful friends and attend the temple. We also spent some quality time just the two of us. It was so nice to not have a schedule and just enjoy everyone's company. I have pictures, but haven't gotten them on a computer yet. Those will come later.
Then early early on Jan 2nd we had to drive back to the Austin airport. We were grateful that Brett was in uniform because he would have missed his flight due to the security line. It was insane, but he got in the priority line and made his flight. I stayed with him as long as I could and watched until I couldn't see him anymore. I did good with not crying until I got to the car. Two more months.
