Friday, December 25, 2009

White Christmas

It has been a while since I've posted anything, because I haven't felt like I had much to say. Today, on the day that we celebrate our Lord's birth, I am feeling particularly blessed. In all my life, I have never had a "real" white Christmas. That is, snow (enough to REALLY play in) on Christmas day in the town that I live in. We've done plenty of ski trips at Christmas, so I have seen snow on Christmas day, just not like this.

And we weren't supposed to be here. We made plans to go to Temple to visit my family briefly, then a quick stop at Chad's parents' house on our way back north. It was going to be a brutal trip-14 hours of driving for a visit shorter than 24 hours. Ouch. But it is my nephew's first Christmas, the pastor at my home church's final Christmas, and my best friends are in town. We heard the weather reports of terrible storms headed this way, but being from Texas, refused to believe them. After all, when in Texas does it actually snow when its supposed to? So we made our plans. Chad got to leave work 2 hours early yesterday because the roads were starting to get a little bad, and we were afraid that if we didn't get on the road, we weren't going to.

About 1:15 we headed out of town. It was sleeting, but the roads weren't too treachorous yet. We had discussed all the "what ifs," so we felt somewhat prepared. If we got too far down the road to turn around, we'd get a hotel, or if we felt okay driving to Chad's parents' (just north of Dallas), we'd stay there. Otherwise, we'd just keep on trucking. Even reports of highway shut downs in Western OK and TX didn't stop us.

Here's where I pause for a little background. For those of you who don't know, I DO NOT drive on ice. Period. The first summer that we lived in AK, on our way back in Oct, we hit some bad weather. I was driving, and like most other Texans I know, had no experience driving on that stuff. Long story short, I was going too fast, fishtailed, then spun, then rolled our Jeep. We were fine, even the Jeep was okay enough to drive the rest of the way to Texas (and then back to AK the next year). However, that little adventure scared me to the point that I am probably a worse driver on ice now.

So. All this means that while I was very anxious to see my family and friends, I was not anxious to brave the ice. Chad was driving, and for the first 30 or so miles, the roads weren't too bad, and there weren't too many accidents. Then, approximately 40 miles from home, we watched as a car on the northbound side of the highway spun out of control into the median. At that point, I decided it was time to turn around. We stopped to check on the family in the other vehicle (they were fine, just shaken up) and headed home. This 80 mile round trip took us about 3 hours. At the rate we were going, we wouldn't have made it to Temple until it was time to leave again.

I cried a little while I told my mom our decision, then again when I talked to my dad. Today, I am at complete peace with it. I have had a very relaxing day with my little family, the first Christmas of its kind. We have gotten to watch Hailey really play in the snow for the first time, and I will be fixing my first holiday meal (cornish game hens, mashed potatoes, and green beans).

This is possibly the best Christmas I've ever had, even though we had few presents to unwrap (we unwrapped them on Tuesday b/c we thought we would be in TX and didn't want to cart presents all that way), didn't get to go to church (the church closed due to weather), and I am missing a rare opportunity to visit with an old friend in Temple. My family is here with me, we're warm and safe, and God blessed us with that accident yesterday (no one was hurt, so I can be thankful, right?); that was what let us know we weren't meant to go to Temple.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. -John 1:14

Woohoo!! Yea Jesus!! I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas, and have a blessed new year!! Bring on 2010!!