Wow, December had some adventures in store for us this year it seems. Guess I’ll start at the beginning…
It started off simple enough. We spent the month in the midst of the chaos and craziness of preparations for christmas and the winter solstice. Making gifts, entertaining cooped up, cabin fevered kids, and making preparations to head out of town for a week.
The kids and I finally perfected our couch fort design.
Nicki took Anna to see the nutcracker ballet with some other moms and daughters. I think they stopped for hot chocolate afterward too, Anna had lots of fun.
Then some sad news, a couple of days before we were scheduled to fly to Iowa for a week, something got into our chicken coop and attacked our chickens. Rosie (our rhode island red) was killed, and Sol (the buff orpington) survived, but was in really rough shape. We brought her inside and tended to her wounds, it didn’t look like she was going to survive the night, but she hung on and after a couple of days she seemed to have stabilized. It looked like she may have been blinded in one eye, but now it looks like she may have her sight back as well. We’re very happy she is on the mend.
I’ll miss Rosie dearly. She was the smallest of the three, but was definitely top of the pecking order, and she was also the most willing to be picked up, pet, etc. She was a good bird and a good friend.
With the injured chickens mostly stabilized, and with them and our cat in the capable and willing hands of a generous friend, we packed our bags and caught a flight to Omaha for a week long trip across Iowa that would prove to be memorable. Our flight arrived in Omaha around 10pm and by the time we negotiated the rental car, actually got onto I-80 (tip for future travelers, the sign says go right but DON’T BELIEVE IT!) and then made it to my brother’s place in Shelby Iowa, it was after midnight. We slept a few hours, woke up, ate some breakfast, then threw the kids back in the car and drove the 4 hours to Iowa City.
Most of Nicki’s family was in Iowa City for the weekend to celebrate her grandfather’s 90th birthday. Anna and Milo had a great time with all their cousins and aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa around. The birthday party was fun, and included an amazing quantity of delicious food. Both Anna and Milo spent quite a bit of time in the hotel pool with their cousins. There was also an attempted afternoon of ice skating, but Milo was napping and Anna complained that the skates were too tight and that she didn’t want to fall, so that was short lived. She spent the afternoon with her aunt Jenny instead and I think they had fun together.
We had intended to take a few days to head back across the state to my brother’s place for christmas, but the weather reports were looking pretty bad. What was supposed to be an overnight stay with Nicki’s aunt Jean turned into a short afternoon visit, but it was still very nice. She brought out all her kids toys, including some old dolls that Anna was in love with. We watched deer and rabbits in the backyard, sat and chatted, and headed out when the kids started getting tired in the hopes of getting our driving done ahead of the coming storm.
We were in Shelby the next morning, just barely ahead of the first round of snow and ice. We did have to stop for provisions along the way though, and snapped this photo of Nicki on our way into the town of Atlantic.
There was plenty of fresh snow, and we got some outside play time in before the storm really hit.
Milo learned that he really liked playing in the snow, and he especially liked eating snowballs.
The freezing rain hit first and coated everything in a half inch of ice. then it started snowing and just kept on snowing.
Being cooped up inside wasn’t all bad though, we had some fun. Made cookies, played games, and opened a few presents early just to keep things interesting. The power started cutting in and out all day long Christmas eve day, but it never stayed off for more than about 5 or 10 minutes. We figured everything would be ok. The kids wrote a note for Santa Claus and went off to bed with visions of sleighbells and reindeer and whatnot.
We woke up Christmas morning though and it was clear that something wasn’t quite right. We figured power had been off for a couple hours, and already the house was noticeably cooler. After some cell phone calls around town it was clear that the whole town was without power. After some further calls to the regional power utilities, it was clear that it was probably going to be quite some time before power was restored. We made the most of it. Everyone bundled up and we opened presents. Eventually we sliced up some cold bagels for breakfast. Anna got some handmade dolls that she really loved, but no one was more pleased with a gift than Milo was about this little fisher price guitar that he got.
It has like four or five songs on it (love shack and message in a bottle are the two I can remember right now), and has strings that respond in key when you pull on them. Milo just held that thing right up to his ear and got this far off stare of contentment and played the songs over, and over, and over. It was hard to wrestle away from him.
It was getting colder, the kids were getting somewhat restless, and to be honest I was getting more than a little worried about the prospects of a night with no heat. The word around town was that Avoca, seven miles east, had power and that there was a motel there that had rooms available. We decided it was probably our best bet considering the circumstances. Our little rental car couldn’t even move, but there were enough four wheel drive rigs there to get us all in, so we loaded up the kids and we took a caravan down the interstate.
Here it is, the Avoca Motel 6, our refuge.
We settled in, warmed up and then headed across the street to the truckstop/cafe which came highly recommended, mostly because it was open. We ate our lunch/dinner/whatever meal it was there in the truckstop and it was then that it really started to dawn on me that this was going to be a christmas to remember.
The power came on later that night in Shelby. We drove back in the morning as we still had to get to Omaha to catch our flight. The interstate was still pretty dicey. Fine for the 4-wheel drive rigs, but I wasn’t looking forward to piloting our little rental car the 40 miles back to Omaha. My mom was headed back to Bemidji and decided to drive with us most of the way back to Omaha, safety in numbers. There were cars and semis in the ditch and buried up to their window in snow, and the overpasses were all iced up, but we made it eventually. A long day of flying and we were back home in Portland by 9pm with two exhausted kids.
As for me, I’m officially taking the rest of the year off, had my fill of excitement for a while.
Here’s wishing everyone a very happy and healthy 2010!
