So I officially have tickets to go visit my sister's family. Dec 4-14 (though the flight home is a red eye so I'll get home morning of the 15th and I told my sister they can drop me off at the airport whenever is convenient early. She also offered that they would pay the $50 non-surge Lyft fee from their house to the airport if they don't feel like going to SeaTac)  It's a good friend who when you ask them if they can pick you up at the airport for a flight that gets in at 9:20am on a Weds because your parents will find that timing tricky as far as payroll and you know she has flexible work from home versus in office as well as say in scheduling meetings respods, "Madison or Milwaukee? Though either should be fine."  My mom actually asked if she could check Delta for me as she has a ridiculous amount of SkyMiles to use up and then my flights were SkyMiles cheap (25,000 each way -- and on the way out there it was 25,00 sky miles for Comfort Plus but 67,000 for their basic/economy. Which was curious, but I'll take extra leg room and free wine/beer/cocktail for less money. Who am I to complain about that?)  We used up less than 10% of her sky miles she's afraid of losing and then it was like $11 for the taxes you have to pay for yourself. It'll cost me more to check my bags 9since the free checked bag is only for the cardholder) than my actual flight. Which I appreciate. 

Also, as of right now, the extended forecast says it will be snow across the second weekend of my visit (hopefully getting me to SeaTac won't be too much of an ordeal since just a little snow/slush shuts down the whole area -- which is comical to me growing up in Wisconsin) and then the day after I get back it's supposed to snow here! These are still long range forecasts, so liable to change, but my mom laughed at me bringing my snow goblins with me wherever I go. 

Also, buying tickets a week and a half before going (especially during Sag season) isn't outside the norm for me -- one of the times I went to London the deal was so insanely good for a nonstop out of Chicago that I bought my ticket to London 36 hours before leaving. And last time i visited NYC, my friend Fred had moved out to a really nice place right in the center of Manhattan (he was working with HBO at the time, helped develop HBOGo before it became HBOMax) and he was saying how much I needed to come visit and on a lark I looked at prices and said, "O if I come visit you next week, my flights will cost less than a Broadway show!) So I did. And ended up buying so many books from The Strand and the Met and National History Museum and random hole in the wall book stores that we had to buy me a second suitcase to bring home just for all my books. (I was flying southwest so the second bag wasn't a problem.) It would be a lie if I told you that was the only time I've ever needed to acquire extra luggage to check for books I buy while traveling, lol. So anyway, last minute decisions for a cheap fare to visit friends/family are not uncommon with me. And right between Thanksgiving and Christmas is often a cheap time to fly. 

My nephew and niece think it's all their guilt tripping. And my nephew sent me a video saying how excited he is and that he wants to have a reading challenge with me while I'm there based on how many books we can read. Given he's 6 and he's super into mangas (which are long, but not a lot to read) this seems a rather one sided metric to me. 

My sister asked me to bring them lots of cheese because their hoard is low and they've been reduced to slumming it with grocery store cheddar. And when I asked how much, she said "enough to last us through 4 days of snow/slush shutting down the entire city area for 10 days." And then she also asked for "any cool Packers things" they might like and if they're pricey but cool to ask because they might want to buy them have me bring them something even if it's outside gifting price parameters.  So she requested I bring cheese and Packers gear for them from Wisconsin -- definitely can't tell she grew up a Sconnie or anything. My nephew Jack asked me to bring him snow --  in all fairness I do have a tendency to show up in the winter and have snowfall occur in Seattle area. He says he loves it and keeps telling his parents he wants to visit WI in winter. My sister keeps laughing telling him he doesn't know what he's asking for. My niece Monroe wants me to bring her lots and lots of snuggle time.

But anyway. It's done and my Seattle trip is booked for Dec 4-14 (and home on the 15, lol.)   My dog knows -- haven't told the cat yet. He is NOT going to be pleased....