Ho Ho Snow! (Or The Little House Christmas)

Remember that Laura Ingalls Wilder book where they had the big snowstorm and Pa had to tie a rope from the house to the barn so he wouldn't get lost when he went out to feed the animals?

Well, it wasn't quite that bad. No livestock were involved.

We left a little early for the annual holiday roadtrip because a snowstorm was about to hit. We drove through some serious fog and arrived at my parents' house in Nebraska on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday morning, we woke up to a lot of ice. By Wednesday afternoon, it was starting to snow. It snowed on Thursday. It snowed on Friday. And it was still snowing on Saturday morning. All in all, we got more than 20 inches of the white stuff and then, because that wasn't enjoyable enough, the wind came up and created drifts of snow that stopped travelers in their tracks.

The downtime was good. After all, when was the last time you had six days dedicated to family? We played a lot of SkipBo and Clue (Colonel Mustard did it, in the Billiard Room, with the lead pipe.) The husband and I downloaded games to our Crackberries and kept busy that way (although man, I bite at Suduku). The girls kept their grandparents hopping and the grandparents loved it. We completely destroyed my mother's immaculate house.

We were snowbound for six days, and finally decided that we were pushing the limits of family togetherness. We made a run for home yesterday morning, but unfortunately, we had to drive through this for the first 60 miles:



That, my friends, is a two lane state highway that was reduced to one lane because of massive snowdrifts that were taller than my minivan. There were areas where the road widened to two lanes... but then both lanes were covered with ice. We were very happy to finally make it to the Interstate and head south.

It wasn't the perfect Christmas. We never did make it see the husband's parents so that celebration has been postponed for a couple of weeks. My sister, who lives just a few miles from our parents, was snowbound at her house so I didn't get to see much of her. And I didn't get to visit my grandparents at all. However, we had electricity and food and - most important - wine, so I guess we were up on Laura Ingalls Wilder in that respect. We made it home safely and, with luck, I can convince the husband to go visit my parents again someday...

Maybe in July.