I'm confused about something, you state that Milwaukee was your family's destination so how were they stranded? It's not like they were stuck in the airport for hours without food or diapers for the children. Those items are easily purchased and I'm sure she only had a small supply with her anyway.

According the the TSA website, you can carry on baby food and diapers so they should not have been checked anyway. The TSA has relaxed some of those tight restrictions they imposed after 8/10/2006.

As someone else said, you could have gate checked the car seats. It's done all the time. You need to give them time to locate them before they will reimburse you. I'm sure there are places you could have rented some for a few days before purchasing new ones.

No airline wants to lose your luggage. It's not like they are sitting there saying, "look guys, it's the Smith's luggage, let's put it on a plane to Australia". Unfortunately, it happens and it's darn inconvenient.

While I agree they could have been a little more helpful, I don't think they went out of their way to ruin your Christmas.