Christmas Unplanned

Marcia and I were planning to roadtrip out to Arizona to spend Christmas with our grandfather in Tucson.  Unfortunately, the midwest weather lost the memo and sent us enough snow for the first two days of our planned trip to keep us homebound.  If you know my sister, you know there was no way she was getting in a car in the middle of a snow storm.  Normally, I would have just driven down to Marcia, thrown her in the backseat with a blanket and some water, and told her not to watch.  But after she reported the weather was "treacherous" between the two of us, I decided to give her some benefit of the doubt and called my dad.  When he told me I should stay put, I knew it genuinely was bad out there.  

By Christmas day the roads and weather were cooperative, allowing us to get on the road.  Instead of journeying half way across the country, though, we decided to drive to Iowa and see our parents.  Of course they didn't know we were coming, and we didn't tell them.  We could have ventured forth to Tucson, but at best would have had only two days to spend there, as we both needed to be back home by December 31st. 

We've been here about three days, lazing around, doing post-holiday shopping (which for me is pre-holiday shopping, as we are not celebrating as a family until January), and getting the house ready for the family gathering.  Today is Mom's birthday.  She, of course, headed off to work this morning -- the hazards of retail employment.  We celebrated her birthday a bit on Christmas.  Dad wanted her to open the new digital camera he gave her, so she could practice using it before Maria Loraine shows up.  (In case you've missed earlier posts, she's the newest member of the Buchs bunch -- about 10 weeks old now.)  Nicole and I made mom a carrot cake from scratch the night before Marcia and I headed this way, so we were cut into it on Christmas, too.  Yummy!  

It was a great Christmas.  No fuss, no mess.  Just time with people I love.