A stressful but pretty good Christmas weekend.
Obviously the big issue the past several days has been the weather. We ended up only getting between 1–2” of snow Thursday, a far cry from that initial forecast of over a foot. But it was still enough, combined with the wind and cold, to make travel difficult and dangerous. Fortunately, for us, S was home before the roads got bad and the rest of us had no need to be outside of the house on Friday as the windchill dropped to over 30 below zero.
With fridges and freezers full of food and temps dangerously low I was super concerned about our power staying on. The weather people kept saying because it was supposed to rain all day Thursday and then quickly freeze, followed up by 48 hours of high winds, power lines would be in great danger.
Thank goodness our electricity never cut out. Well at least it didn’t until right in the middle of our Christmas morning brunch, when the power winked out for a couple seconds then came right back on. Thursday night, as the winds howled and shook our roof, I kept waking up, thinking the power had gone out and having panics about our food going bad or the pipes freezing. Luckily we didn’t have to deal with any of that.
We normally do a big family gathering on Christmas Eve, but because of the cold, the bad roads for a few locals, and one out-of-town group delaying their visit, we decided to postpone that until New Year’s Eve. We had a couple nephews over for an impromptu pizza party.
Christmas morning was nice. Our girls long ago figured out if they are only getting three things, they should only ask for three things. I think M even told S a couple nights ago, “I pretty much know what I’m getting…” They were still excited to open the gifts, though. A lot of clothes and beauty products. C got some Uggs that we were sweating the arrival of, but made it just in time. L is now into photography so got a new lens and tripod for her camera.
Then it was the annual family Christmas brunch. We were down a few people so it wasn’t as huge as it often is, but still two full tables of folks celebrating the holiday together.
Christmas night, after all the guests had left, we convinced M and C to watch Glass Onion with us. L was too busy reading the book that came in her stocking to join us. It’s been a long time since we watched a movie together. It took awhile for the girls to get into it, but eventually they were all-in and enjoyed it. I think C at least wants to go back and watch Knives Out.
By midday Christmas, the wind chills had finally crept above zero. Funny how that seems like a big change and then you take the trash outside and nearly freeze. S and I ran out this morning to check out a couple sales before the traffic got too heavy. Despite actually cracking 20° it was still not a very enjoyable walk from the car to the stores. Later this week it may push 60°. Typical Midwest weather bullshit.
We have out-of-towners coming in a couple waves later this week, so I imagine there will be some additional gatherings over the week heading into the New Year’s Eve family deal.
I hope all of your Christmas events were warm, safe, and joyful.