Christmas in Hawaii: United Stinks & Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve, we flew to the motherland for two weeks.  Before we left, we made Dolly open a few presents at home so we wouldn't have to lug them across the ocean and back: 

The flight from LAX to Honolulu was hard.  A one-year-old who can't sleep outside her crib but gets extremely tired if she's awake for more than three hours at a time is not the ideal traveling companion, especially when she gets almost no sleep the night before.  (We had to wake her at like 3 in the morning to get to L.A. to catch our flight, and she didn't go back to sleep in the car.) 

When Jim checked us in before we left home, he was only able to check us in on the first leg, to Honolulu; he couldn't check us in for our flight from Honolulu to Kona.  The agent in L.A. did check our suitcase all the way through, though.  So when we arrived in Honolulu, we hopped straight on the shuttle and went to our gate in the interisland terminal, where we tried to check in.  Lady 1 told us that we had to check in 45 minutes before flight time; the computer shut them out at that point.  We explained that we booked our trip at one time (both legs) and were given such a short connection that we could not get there 45 mintues early.  We had gone straight there.  The plane was still there.  Our baggage was on it.  But Lady 1 would not let us board.  We went back and forth with her, and ultimately she said she would put us on standby for the next flight - which was full, so we obviously wouldn't get on it - and then we could talk to a higher-up.  While we were standing at the desk, we heard over the loudspeaker, "We may have two seats available on Flight [X] from Honolulu to Kona . . ."  I was like, "Those are our seats!  They're giving away our seats!"  When Lady 1 fininshed whatever she had to do, she sent us down to the gate to see if the woman there (who was a higher-up) could help us.  Lady 2 at the gate was super-condescending and kept calling me "hon."  She said, "If the Chamberlains show up, then there's nothing we can do for you.  You can't get on this plane."  Jim said, "The Chamberlains?  Who are the Chamberlains?  They're our seats!"  Then a couple walked up, and Lady 2 asked if they were the Chamberlains.  Of course they were.  Lady 2 ushered them onto the plane.  The argument heated up.  The condescending "hon" thing continued, and finally Jim exploded:  "Don't call her 'hon'!  We didn't do anything wrong.  United booked this trip for us with a short connection and wouldn't check us all the way through.  Is there anyone human here who can do anything?  Are you human?!," etc.  I was mortified at first.  By the time he finished yelling, though, I was all riled up and burst out crying, "So we can't get home for Christmas?!"  And with that, we whirled around and stormed off.  Jim told me later he actually thought we were going to be escorted off the premises by security.  As soon as we walked away and sat down, I was totally embarrassed.  We really made quite a scene.  A minute later, Lady 1 and Lady 2 came and told us that they would be able to get us on the next flight, which left in about an hour and a half.  We would be taking the Chamberlains' seats, since those were freed up now that the Chamberlains had taken our seats.  The ladies were kind enough to do that for us, even though there were standby passengers who were at the front of the line for the Chamberlains' seats.  RIDICULOUS.  (This reminds me that I still need to write to United and complain.)

After that fiasco was sorted out, we got some food and left the area to eat it so we didn't have to see the Ladies anymore.  (We were sore ashamed.)   We made it home and found our suitcase, stroller, and car seat waiting for us at the Kona airport (since they had arrived on time).  What a relief we didn't have to spend Christmas Eve in a hotel in Honolulu! 

While we thought we had it rough, Courtney was delayed repeatedly and didn't make it to Kona until 2:00 A.M. Christmas morning - five hours after she was scheduled to arrive.  Needless to say, she was less than thrilled about getting up for presents, but she didn't want to miss out.  We opened presents by the fire:



One of Tristan's favorites was a whoopie cushion that Jim broke within about an hour.  Christian promptly bought a replacement, which Christian then broke.  Apparently they're not made for grown men's enjoyment, or they're just terrible quality.  In any event, Tristan was devastated, but he enjoyed it while it lasted.

Tristan also got this mask, which completely terrified Ever:



Cornyee kindly bought me The Family Stone, to replace the copy my friend Natalie accidentally stole:

I got her an FNL t-shirt - a memento of the show to which I introduced her and the show that changed her life.  Texas forever:



Many other lovely gifts were exchanged, but I don't have photos of those. 

Chow Mein either talked on the phone or brushed her hair (it's unclear):



Pod and TKan played some Hungry Hippos . . .



 . . . and Dolly played with her new xylophone (thank you, Cornyee!):

The rest of the day consisted of breakfast . . .

. . . walking practice . . .



. . . snuggling . . .

Bags rocked this outfit probably 50% of the trip.

. . . Dominoes (note how they kindly took turns pressing the button in the middle) . . .



. . . piano playing . . .

. . . belated present-opening (Dolly had to go down for a nap before she opened all of hers) . . .

 . . . and general laziness since all of us travelers were weary.