December Secret Subject Swap - Frugal Christmas

Welcome to December's Secret Subject Swap. Again 15 brave bloggers picked a secret subject for someone else and were assigned a secret subject to interpret in their own style. Today we are all simultaneously divulging our topics and submitting our posts.

Here are links to all the sites now featuring Secret Subject Swap posts.  
Sit back, grab a red cup and check them all out:


Baking In A Tornado

Not That Sarah Michelle
Spatulas on Parade

My subject is 
             
 You have $100 to spend on your entire family for Christmas, what creative way do you use this money to celebrate?



It was submitted by Spatulas on Parade - thanks, Dawn!



When my Dad, Colin and I picked up my Mom at the airport a couple of weeks ago, we were sitting at the food court, people watching, and Dad jokingly said "it's so busy here all the time, I wonder if it ever quiets down, maybe on Christmas Eve?"




I - only half jokingly - replied "we should try it some time!" 

Interestingly the thought has always been in the back of my mind, and it promptly resurfaced when I got my writing assignment.

Well, with 100 bucks to spend for the holidays, this might just be it!!




Think of it, it's all there! 

It's heated, it's decorated, there is food, without my lifting a finger!

Come to think of it - there's not just your typical airport food! During the winter months, they even run Baracca Zermatt, a chalet style restaurant on the premises. A couple of years ago we celebrated the 50th birthday of a friend there, it was enchanting!




Zermatt is the village at the base of the world famous Matterhorn. Baracca Zermatt is the city restaurant version, so to speak. 




That's where we are going to have dinner! Yay, cheese fondue! 

Oh man, forget about it... 100 bucks buys dinner for three people at that place. There's going to be five of us! No Upper Deck either. 

Back to food court we go!



You'll have to excuse my fellow Swiss people. I don't think "Foodland" is an acceptable English word, but hey, if they can live with it, so can I.

You know what else won't leave my mind when I think of spending Christmas Eve at the airport? 



The Tom Hanks movie "The Terminal" about that guy from an Eastern European country whose government collapsed, and therefore his passport wasn't being recognized by the U.S. immigration, so he was stuck at JFK airport with just his suitcase, very little money but lots of creativity on how to make a living in transit.

Back to our Holiday celebration:

It's going to be a bit of a time stretch because my Dad is a member of the church choir and only has a window of four hours in between concerts, of which we need at least 90 minutes to drive to and from the airport. Still leaves us with 2.5 hours for our Christmas. If the weather conditions on the road are good, and if there is no traffic jam due to accidents or other reasons, that is.

Drinks at the Check-in 1 area: we'll bring plastic cups from home and buy some alcohol-free sparkling wine at the airport supermarket. If there are long queues, we may share with passengers. Note: bring extra cups.



I might prepare an airport scavenger hunt: snap a picture of a Japanese Airline flight attendant, find out how many car rental companies are located at the airport, what time and where to does the last flight depart tonight, how much does a Swiss army knife with 14 tools cost...? 

As we are already in the Check-in area, we may step into the airport chapel. Maybe an early Christmas service is on? If not, I'll just light a couple of candles for all the people we've lost this year. 

If there is time, we might visit some of my former coworkers, the SWiSS aircraft engineers, storemen, material planners, etc. on duty tonight. Note: apply for visitor's badges for access to the restricted areas, bring picture ID.

If there is some more time, I'd love to decorate an aviation themed Christmas tree with them, something like this:



At some point we'll have dinner at Foodland, everybody chooses from the Asian, Italian, American (McD), Seafood or "Greens" (salad bar) booth.

Coffee and dessert at Starbucks. I have recently loaded my loyalty card, so we won't need any of the 100 Dollars - or Swiss Francs in our case. 

Some may call it cheating, I think you've got to be resourceful. With any luck, my friend B, who is the manager of one of the airport's SBUX stores, will be on duty and treat us to a cup of Christmas blend anyway ;-) 





Soon it will be time to drive back, in order for my Dad to make it to his "warm-up singing" for midnight mass, which starts at 11pm. If Colin is not too tired, we may hang out at the church for this to begin, otherwise we'll go to bed, thinking "this was nice!"



Will we miss presents? I don't think so. We've been opening advent calendar gifts every day in December. 



Plus we have too much stuff as it is!

What do you think? Shall I dare and suggest this to my family?

The benefits for me personally would go way beyond saving money: saving my time!! 
No decorating, table setting, chopping, roasting, you name it! 

Plus: I already scheduled another Dec 24 hair appointment! Can't spend the whole day in the kitchen anyway!


Merry Airport Christmas!


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