My daughters and I were excited about leaving this morning to go to Panama to visit my brother and my dad, but our flight out of New Orleans was delayed for over an hour as they de-iced the plane (or 'defrosted' as Bridget put it). As a result of that delay we missed the only flight leaving for Panama today. But Continental gave us each a complimentary dopp kit and put us up for the night at the Airport Hilton, where Wi-Fi and coffee are free in the lobby.
After we checked in we walked over to the Kettle Inn, just across the parking lot for a sumptuous Christmas meal (All You Can Eat Buffet for $7.98). I suppose we could complain but it's not too bad. I'm with my two daughters having a nice family outing. Of course, we are all missing the snowball fights back in New Orleans which is having its first Christmas snow since 1954.
And 
here's a picture of my son with the snowman he built today (he didn't travel with us because of issues with his inner ear that are too laborious to explain here). Anyway, last week he found out that he did very well on the PSAT, getting a perfect score in the math and composition sections. This week he's demonstrating his engineering prowess by assembling his first snowman.
It's painful to be away from kids when they reach these important milestones...even when they are sixteen years old.
