Uh Oh.

Julia spotted this. She said she could hear sirens as the buses were pulling away from school.

Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony

Watch the lighting of the tree.
This year's tree lighting ceremony at Shadow Lake Towne Center was a special one.

While I don't believe we have ever attended one at this popular shopping place in Papillion, we had good reason to be there this year. That's because the tree that is on display came from the yard where Jon Brooks grew up. His dad donated it in memory of Patti, who died a few years ago. Because of this, we enjoyed a nice view from the VIP section next to the stage.

We enjoyed pretty moderate weather conditions (though the wind did kick up a bit at the end) and the ceremony itself was very nice. It included a concert by the "Peppermint Elves," as well as several characters from "Frozen" and other Disney movies – plus the entirety of the Papillion-South Titans marching band. That was impressive.

Here are a few photos: 

Santa Claus was there, along with radio personalities Chris and Ricky from Star 104.5.

The tree looked much larger on display than in Jon's front yard.

Julia got her picture taken with the Grinch. Well, kind of.

Olivia (right) and Julia posed in front of the tree.

Lauren was helping out with Neil's children and Emily was in Colorado.

This was a nice sign to help remember Patti.

I felt like I was live tweeting an event...

Here is Santa's arrival.

Wow!

This was amazing news to receive this afternoon.

My Youngest 'Tweeter'

I really love Veronica's Twitter avatar. She's such a cutie.

Travel Troubles

A piece of the crazy-long line at the Madrid airport.
Madrid – It's never a good thing when your mom sends you an e-mail about an air traffic controllers strike.

That's what showed up in my inbox the morning I was set to fly to Spain. On that country's busiest holiday weekends (more than two million people were expected to travel), I was scheduled to fly through the Madrid airport. on my way to Valencia – and eventually Denia.

Delta Assist, the Twitter account for customer service for Delta Airlines, was of no help and I had no indication (other than CNN) that trouble was brewing until I stepped into an absolutely jam-packed terminal. And did I mention that all the signs in the airport are in Spanish?

Thus began a nearly 90-minute wait in line to get a boarding pass for a flight that was first delayed, then took off without me. But the ticket agent (who thankfully spoke some English) was able to get me a standby seat on the next plane out. I spent the four-hour wait working on my laptop (there are NO outlets in this airport) and studying my French numbers.