A Christmas We'll Never Forget

It's been a crazy week for me - due to hectic holiday schedules, our children and their families couldn't get together until last weekend for our Christmas. With much anticipation, we eagerly awaited the arrival of one crew from New Mexico on the way back to West Virginia, another from Boone, and our daughter from grad school.

Christmas for my wife and I was a little slower paced; we took our two still at home to Tennessee to visit family for a few days, and then came back for the New Year. After that, we had another week to get ready:

• Last minute gift-buying (intentional this time, since we could take advantage of after-Christmas sales)
• Decorating the house and tree (you can get a really good tree free on December 31)
• Menu planning (we always like to experiment with new goodies)
• Cleaning and rearranging the house to accommodate three families on different schedules with little ones (a 3 year old and a 3 month old)
• Hosting some friends who haven't seen the WV crew since the baby was born
• Arranging a family photo with a professional photographer

When Friday night rolled around, we were ready - or so we thought.

Let's just say it was a Christmas we will never forget, and one we don't want to repeat!

• A "bug" of some kind accompanied our cross-country travelers, almost derailing their flight in Dallas; our daughter-in-law arrived almost dehydrated
• Snow hit Boone before our kids could get out; they had to wait till Sunday afternoon to come to Huntersville
• The "bug" begin an insidious journey, traveling through four of us, no more than one at a time, a day apart
• I was the second one down, and left my poor wife in the lurch by mid-day Sunday
• The next one was our budding chef, who was on tap to prepare most of the snacks
• A three year old's schedule can be easily put out of sort, and time doesn't mean anything
• 6 inches of snow falls early Monday morning, with ice projected to arrive beginning Monday afternoon
• Murphy reigns supreme

We decided to call it a day, canceled the photo shoot, divvied the food up, and quickly packed the travelers up so they could get on the road and home before the ice hit and they were stranded.

Everyone made it home safely, everyone seems to be on the mend, and no one else has gotten sick in the past two days. We have decided that the new Christmas scent of 2010 was Lysol! The snow and ice pretty much shut down much of Charlotte till this morning, so it's back to school for Aaron and back to work for Anita and I (though we were able to work from home yesterday).

We're already making plans for Christmas 2011...


...not that it will do any good!