We survived! LOL

[Woofens]

Well, we decided to go to Alabama for Christmas, to see my family there we hadn't seen since 2003. We left Tuesday evening about 7:30. BAD time to leave. We hit the ice storm that coated OH, outside of Columbus. We were in the ice until south of Cincinnati. OMG. What should have taken us 4-5 hours, took us closer to 8. We saw a mini van doing 360's in the northbound lane. We saw countless car and trucks in the median and ditches. I was panicked. M drove, I would have stopped. We would talk about stopping, then it would clear up a bit so we kept going. By the time we hit Louisville KY, M was exhausted, from the stress of driving on ice. We stopped at a rest stop and slept for 3 hours. If we has gotten a room, we would not have had time to finish the trip and get home in time. We finally hit my hometown around 3 PM Wednesday afternoon.

I didn't get to see my uncle and 1 of my aunts and cousin I really wanted to see. I did get to talk to my uncle and cousin on the phone. I did get to see another aunt and and my grandmother.

Santa's elves came to our hotel room and left the kids their Christmas PJ's while we were at the vending machines getting munchies (Boy was that fun to arrange LOL) and Santa brought the kids stockings for Christmas morning. They all got Nintendo DS Lites, which made the trip back wonderful and quiet LOL.

I got to go to the cemetery Christmas day and see my dad's grave stone. I hadn't been to the cemetery since we buried him in 1998. Kind of a crappy thing to do on Christmas, but I'm glad I got to see it. Going back wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

We left AL around 4 PM Christmas day. We made excellent time on our way home. We pulled into the driveway at around 4 AM. Got the kids into bed (which was fun since they slept the whole way home and Santa had been here and left a trampoline and a Wii). M went to bed for about an hour and left for work around 6:30 AM. He did sleep about 3 hours on the way home.

So... we still have to do Christmas tonight when M gets home from work. The kids are being really good about not going crazy about all the wrapped gifts.

difficult child J was excellent! No meltdowns, no rages. I was so proud of him. He was a little shy, but all in all, it went so much better than I ever expected. He is kind of whiny and arguing today, but he is tired and not feeling good. We'll see how tonight goes, when we finally open presents.

Hope everyone had a good holiday!!!

Hugs
Jan

 

[flutterbee]

Oh, you did pick a bad time to leave. 7:30 is when the ice really hit. It was a solid sheet on the driveway, patio, roads.

I'm glad you had a good trip and a good Christmas. Even more glad that you made it safely through the ice.

difficult child wanted to go to the grocery store Tuesday night and I kept telling her that if she could stand up on the driveway, we'd go.

 

[Andy]

I am so glad you stayed safe through your travels. What a cool memory for the kids to have Santa visit both the motel room and their home.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Jena]

hi

it sounds like a wild trip, yet sounds like once you got there it was worth all the effort. i'm glad difficult child did so well, that was huge especially in a car for all those hours.

glad you had a good holiday. it's nice to go home sometimes.