Saturday, January 2, 2010

Christmas Recount

This year we made the rounds for our family Christmases. We had a total of four! Our first stop was in Louisiana for Scott's family. We had a great time and Luke enjoyed being out at Aunt Kathy's and Uncle Robert's farm. He loved riding the golf cart around and he even got to ride a horse! Next was Lubbock. The weather started to look a lot like Christmas the night before Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve morning we woke up to snow, ice and hazardous road conditions. Scott and I made the decision to leave Lubbock at noon and take highway 84 to Interstate 20. We usually drive highway 114 from Frisco up to Lubbock, but this is a two lane highway for the better part of the way. It took us almost 4 hours to reach the outside of Abilene, TX. There we met one of the largest traffic backups Texas has ever seen. For the next 3 hours we moved only about 4 miles, and then we were told that the Interstate had been closed due to ice and snow. During this time I began looking for a hotel that had room and that would take Maggie. We ended up getting a room at the Quality Inn just off the highway. The room was nice and clean. There was a jacuzzi tub in the middle of the room though. :-) As you can see from our pictures, we had just enough room for all of our things. The next morning was Christmas. I was pretty upset that we were spending Christmas morning in a motel. By noon the roads had still not opened and we learned that over 200 cars and trucks had been stranded on the road. The National Guard had been called out to help get people food, water, and gas. Many motorist had to go to shelters that had been set up along the way. We decided that we were very lucky to have had a warm bed that night, even though all of us slept in it together! That afternoon we very carefully made our way out of Abilene by way of some back roads and were home by 5:00pm. That night we opened gifts with Butch and Glenda. They stayed and helped put Luke's train table and trains together that Santa had left for him. That next morning we packed up again and headed east to Tyler to see my Dad, Melissa and Preston, Laryn and Jack. The boys love playing together and they both got wonderful gifts. I am so happy that Luke has two cousins so close to his age. (Jackson is just one year older and Jack is only 4 months older) In total we drove almost 2,000 miles this year for Christmas. I am happy to say that we enjoyed seeing all of our families and spending time with each of them. However, next year we plan to stick closer to home.

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