年末年始はアメリカに一時帰国していたので、2017年の仕事納めは12月22日の金曜日でした。2018年の仕事始めは4日。久しぶりに2週間近くの休暇！
一時帰国のため犬を預けなくちゃならなかったんだけど、帰国が決まったのが12月の頭だったので、ペットホテルにいくつか電話かけてもどこももうクリスマスにかけて予約でいっぱいで、ちょっと焦った。幸い、近所の人が紹介してくれたところが、ちょっと離れてるんだけど（車で30分）とてもいいところで下見しに行ってすぐ予約しました。私たちの出発日は26日の早朝だったんだけど、25日は休業ということで、犬たちは24日からホテル住まいになりました。
うちはもちろんクリスマスの飾りとかないんだけど、隣に住んでる大家さんちのクリスマスツリーが巨大でした。大体さ、クリスマスツリーがホイールローダー（除雪車みたいなショベルカー）で運ばれてきたもんね。
クリスマスはご近所さんに招待されて、イギリスの伝統的なクリスマスディナーをいただきました。七面鳥とか、ミンスパイとか。イギリスのクリスマスケーキは、ものすっごいブランデーがしみしみしたフルーツケーキでした。
アメリカ一時帰国ではアトランタに行ってきました。なんでアトランタかって言うと、イギリスのビザ更新のため。ビザが年末で切れるので。なんでイギリス国内でビザの更新ができないのか未だ不明。ビザの更新費用は会社が払ってくれるけど、旅行事体は自費よ（泣）
アトランタに2泊後は、アラバマでオット家族を訪ね、11月に生まれた甥に対面。寒波に直撃されて、年末年始のアラバマは極寒！日中の最高気温が氷点下だったよ。犬を連れて散歩に出たら冷たい空気が痛くて凍傷になるかと思った。
預け荷物のスーツケースがベルトコンベヤーから出てこなかったり（次の便で届けられた）、24時間サービスというビザのサービスが私のビザだけ間に合わなかったり（パスポートは宅配便でアラバマに届けられました）、帰りの乗り継ぎ飛行機がキャンセルされて別の便に回されたので出発が8時間遅れになり、3日の夜にイギリス到着のはずが、4日の朝になったりしたけど、どのトラブルも、最悪な状況は回避できたのでよかったです。
Happy New Year.
My last day of work in 2017 was 22nd and I had almost 2 week vacation. I wasn't particularly happy with the timing, but we went back to the U.S.
Our trip to the U.S. didn't get decided until early December. I called a few kennels to board our dogs, but they were already fully booked during the holidays. Luckily, the kennel that my neighbor referred me to was pretty nice, though it was a bit far (30 min drive). We went out there to take a look and booked them immediately. Although our flight was early morning on 26th, we couldn't drop the dogs off on the 25th (kennel was closed), so the dogs had to go on the 24th. With extra nights and the extra holiday surcharges, the kennel cost was pretty pricey, but oh well.
We did not have any holiday decoration at our house, but my landlord who lives next door had a HUGE Christmas tree. The tree was delivered by a front loader. That is so his style...
On the Christmas Day, our neighbor kindly invited us for dinner and we had a lovely traditional English Christmas dinner with a huge turkey, lot of mince pies, and a Christmas cake. English (or British?) Christmas cake is basically a fruit cake on steroid. Lots of brandy in it. (Usually the dried fruit is soaked in brandy for weeks)
The reason why we had to go back to the U.S. was to renew our UK visas. I still don't understand why we had to go to U.S. to get our UK visa when we are already in UK, but that's what the company "solicitor" (=attorney) supposedly said. We picked the visa service office in Atlanta so that we could make a trip to Alabama to visit the Man of the House's family and meet the newly born nephew.
We were hit by the cold weather in Alabama and it was cooooooold. The day time high was below freezing and the low was single digit. I thought my fingers were going to drop off when I took a dog for a walk.
We had minor troubles: MOTH's suitcase did not come out of the luggage carousel (came in the next flight); even though the company purchased the 24-hour visa service package, my visa did not make it while we were in Atlanta (my passport was overnighted to Alabama 2 days later); and our connecting flight back (Atlanta to Chicago) was cancelled so we were routed to another flight 8 hours later (the cancellation was notified before we left Alabama so we just stayed there longer). But overall, we averted the nightmare scenario so it was good.
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