Trip? or.... Trip!

           There seems to be this strange "family curse" or whatever that affects our family. It's not entirely clear whether it's rooted in the McCarthy or vanVeen side (Dutch + Irish = it's own curse??) but what is clear is that it affects everyone in our family. It seems that the most random things, (or whatever possibility CAN happen *will*) happen to us. Did you read 8 Crazy Hours? Would you believe that when my sister flew back home, one of her bags was rolled over by the "luggage train" on the tarmac and crushed to death? Because of this incident, the bag (and 20% of it's contents) was not returned to her until 24 hours later and then it was in a body bag and in pieces....
           The above episode followed a fall my mom took at a hotel we stayed the weekend in. Since she ended up spraining her wrist, I let her borrow my wrist brace that I was wearing because I sprained mine a few days before. (Did I mention we're also accident prone??)
           Christmas Eve was probably the most memorable for my Mom and sis. We were all sitting around the tree, taking pics of the kids after we let them open one of their presents. I was so excited (and curious) that I wanted to join in the revelry too, so I asked if it was okay to open the gift my Mom almost got arrested at the airport for. My bro & future sis-in-law gave my Mom our gifts to take along with her. Apparently, there was "over 8 ounces" of fluid in the wrapped one for me. Oops. The security guy kindly let it slide since it was Christmas, but not before arguing with my Mom about having to confiscate it. Anyways, we were all *dying* to know what was in the mysterious package. So, I unwrapped it. It was a white box. As I was sliding my finger in the seem, I caught it on a staple. Needless to say, I learned my lesson about opening gifts early and am now scarred for life. Please, if you send me a gift, use a gift bag and tissue paper. (They got me some Bath & Body Works hand soaps, a snowflake wallflower plug-in and scented oils for it!)
           Sure, there were "good", sane moments, like wrapping presents to raise $$ for charity at Wal*Mart (though I did end up getting my fingers stuck to a package...) and visiting the "Grandmas & Grandpas" at the local nursing home (where I forgot a few verses to a favorite Christmas carol and my line of thinking was "they won't notice if I just start singing 'dah-dah-dah'" but they did...oops).
           I don't say all this to get a "aw-I'm-so-sorry-for-your-seemingly-bad-luck-I-pity-you". I'm just stating facts. We don't pity ourselves or get depressed when something goes wrong-we find the humor in it and laugh (or write blog posts). Now, I had started writing this post before my Mom left last Friday. Due to scheduling conflicts, I was unable to go with her on the long drive to the airport, so I entrusted hubby with her, her luggage, and the boys. After my Mom arrived at her gate, she called me. Apparently they had left so early that they had time to stop at a nice restaurant for breakfast. This allowed hubby to officially become a vanVeen. *Somehow* he spilled his entire cup of chocolate milk all over my Mom. Welcome to the family, hubby!
           Well, it was an exciting-memory filled trip, and we had our family pics done with my Mom & sis  no one died. You can check out the shoot here.