December Recap, Part 2

On Wednesday, Dec 19th, we left work, picked up the kitties, and headed to Rochester. We spent all of Thursday there, and then dad drove us to the buffalo airport for our 1:30pm flight to San Diego.
On friday, Dec 21, while at the BUF airport, my sister Ana called me at 12:48 to tell me that my brothers had to call 911 because my dad wasn't responding... Instead of asking for details, I asked her to call me back when she knew what was going on. As soon as I hung up, Sayra called me with similar news. It wasn't looking good, and I was worried that I wouldn't get to see my dad after all.
At 1:46, my phone rang once again. This time it was Karla who called to tell me that our dad was gone. The call didn't last long, and I was not in the mood to fly. A few minutes later, Ana called me again to make sure I had heard the news. I knew then that Christmas just wouldn't be the same...
Jeff and I had made plans to spend all of Sunday in Anaheim, with our Aunt Sandy (Jeff's dad's sister) and her daughter's family. Jeff said it'd be up to me if we canceled or drove up like planned. I didn't decide anything right away, but I had a feeling that I'd want to go anyway.
The first flight (BUF to ATL) was extremely long. I cant imagine what people were thinking about me, crying and blowing my nose the whole way... Once we got all the way to SD and got into the rental car, we rushed over to my sister's house, because everyone was waiting for me, so we could discuss the services details.
Saturday was not as long a day as Friday, but it was just as sad. We pretty much just spent time with family, and then Sunday we spent the day with the Turner family in Anaheim. We had a good time, and we even went to see the fancy houses with the Christmas lights that you can probably see from space. Jeff and I stayed at a really nice hotel, with a king size bed - it was a much needed get-away. We headed back to SD on Monday (Christmas eve), just in time to make it to Karla's house for dinner.
At about 9pm, we headed to Astrid's house to spend time with the rest of the family, and hand out our Christmas presents. We managed to stay awake until about 12:30, before heading back to Sayra's so we can go to sleep.
Jeff and I spent all of Christmas day at Julio's house. We were working on 3 computers, to put together a chronological picture slide show for my dad's wake the next day. It was a long day, and we didn't finish until about 11:30 that evening. I think that Luis and Julio spent another hour or so ironing out some more details after we left.
The wake was interesting to say the least. Lots of mixed emotions - i was happy to see family i hadn't seen in a while, frustrated at people's phones ringing, glad to see friends that stopped in for support, and empty and alone all at the same time. It was very awkward.
The next day (Thursday), we all met at the funeral home again, and headed to the cemetery around 11am. We weren't able to bury my dad until about 2:30, because we were waiting to get the burial permit from the town, which wasn't processed as quickly as we hoped, due to the holiday closings.
On Friday, we spent the afternoon with the family before we headed for the airport around 5:30pm, for the red-eye flight to ATL. The flights back seemed much shorter than the ones we took the week before. I was sad, yet relieved, to be back in NY state. I missed sleeping with my kitties, and I was very much looking forward to being home soon...