A Christmas to Remember

A tremendous ice storm moved into our area on the night of December 21st this year.  Large branches and trees were down all around us (from the heavy ice) and we lost our power.  Steve and I were both up in the middle of the night (after being awakened from our smoke alarms going off), so we were able to prepare a little bit for the morning that was ahead of us.  Two hours after the kids had awakened, it was obvious that I just needed to get us out of the house -- Steve was working feverishly to get a small generator going, but with the inability to run water or the furnace and with no good way to heat Jack's food (his baby food is frozen in ice cubes in the freezer), I packed the kids and myself up and headed to my parents' house.  They had power for the time being.

In the middle of the night on the 22nd, my parents lost power at their house, as well.  And our power had not been restored yet.  After a couple of mini-breakdowns and wondering how I was going to pull this holiday off, Steve's sister offered for us to come to their house.  I gladly seized the opportunity.

The original plan was to celebrate Christmas Eve AT MY HOUSE with Steve's family and Christmas Day AT MY HOUSE with my family.  I had meals planned and a few presents to still wrap, but I had to re-evaluate everything.  Instead, we just celebrated Christmas Eve at Steve's sister's house (we still did the meal; we just prepared it at her house instead).  Santa came there on Christmas morning and we canceled Christmas Day with my family and just stayed at Deb's. 

At 9 pm on Christmas Eve, we received word from one of our neighbors that the power had come back on at our house.  To me, it was a Christmas miracle!  But, all of our presents had been brought to Deb's house and we were going to continue with our new plan.  It turns out that that was a good idea because the power went back out again in the middle of the morning on Christmas Day!

We heard that it came back on in the afternoon, so we packed up both vehicles (to the max) with opened gifts, sleeping bags, pillows, suitcases, left-over food and the kids and headed home at 7 pm on Christmas night.  I was anxious to get the kids home and in bed and then to try and restore a little order to my house before crashing for the night.  Imagine our surprise when we came home to a house that was STILL without power!  Yes, it was a low-point for me.

Luckily, we were able to run the generator (for running water and some electricity) throughout the next day until our power was finally -- and officially -- restored on the night of the 26th.  We kept a fire going in the fireplace for some warmth and we managed to make the best of it.  I have never been so happy as I was when I was able to do loads of laundry and clean up my house for the first time in a full week!


Christmas Eve

Christmas Catherine managed to make her final appearance at Aunt Deb's house of Christmas Eve morning and she brought the kids a last little surprise: some new shirts!

Finding a new hanging spot for our stockings at Aunt Deb's house:

Steve set to work making meatballs for our spaghetti dinner that night:

Eventually, Sophia just needed to take a little rest.  It's hard work preparing for a night of festivities.

Uncle Dennis showed the girls where Santa had already been and where he was traveling to next.  They were SO intrigued.

A quick photo of my little ones before we began exchanging gifts that night:

Stan wrapped several gifts that Barb had purchased for the kids earlier this year.  He even wrote on the tags that they were from Grandma.  It was definitely a special thing.  For that reason, Sam absolutely treasures this little bear.

Jack loved playing with the bows:

The excitement on Sophia's face over every single present was adorable.  Aunt Deb had gotten her some Curious George movies and she went crazy when she opened them!

Showing Jack some of the presents:

I love this girl so much!

Jack helped open a few gifts too:

Sophia was pretty independent when it came to opening her own gifts.  After all, she is going to be three soon ...

Jack managed to smile for one more picture before letting us know that he was done for the night:

Yup, game over.  Jack was ready to put his new Christmas Eve pajamas on, have some milk and go to bed.

Opening their traditional Christmas Eve pajamas from Steve and me:

Before the girls got their pajamas on, we had one last thing to do -- they needed to sprinkle their reindeer food out onto the lawn.  They slipped into their boots and coats and rushed outside to empty their special bags.

They started out sprinkling in the same area and I had to encourage them to spread out a little bit:

Sophia is a natural now, where last year ... she just dumped her bag in a single pile.

The glitter was sure to shimmer and shine among all the ice:

After the kids had their pajamas on and their teeth brushed, I read them a story and settled them into their sleeping bags for the night.  We never heard a single peep from them.  Something tells me that they were exhausted!