Site Title

We spent the morning cleaning and wrapping.  Then watched THIS video with the kids…beautiful, it made Jacob cry.

By this time, the snow had started to fall and it was so beautiful.  Could it really be a white Christmas?  I've NEVER had one – in my whole life.  In fact, it's been 83 years since the DFW area has seen a white Christmas.  Too fun.  How special!

Then we headed to PF Chang's for an early dinner with my mom and Steve.  I was given an early gift – a new lens for my camera!!  So excited and already I've found plenty of use for it.

After that we headed to the Dalebout's…it took a little longer than usual to make the drive since the roads were icy and the snow was blowing hard.  It was quite something!

We were so thrilled to have Mom and Steve join us at the Dalebout's (and the Hicken's were there too, of course) to make gingerbread houses (that don't resemble houses) and sing hymns around the piano.  It was freezing outside but felt so warm and delightful inside with our family and friends.  Scott read the nativity story to us, while Samuel put his arm around Lexi and listened.  Delightful, I tell you.  It was wonderful.

Around 10 pm we headed for home (typically a 15 minute drive), but never would have believed that we wouldn't get home until 11:30.  The roads were terrible!  Ice-covered and dangerous we were on a road with slight to not-so-slight inclines, and many cars were not making it – sometimes blocking traffic all together.  After sitting still for over 10 minutes with cars backing up, Derek decided to take action and what would follow became our own "Good Samaritan" moment and it made for a very memorable Christmas Eve.  Derek was able to help push and "rescue" about 6 or 7 cars in a 45-minute time period.  Some of those enabled us to get by, but then we pulled over so he could get back out and help some more, even though we could have gone safely home at that point.  The kids would watch and cheer him on from our warm, safe car.  Several cars were locked up and not going anywhere with just Derek alone, so other men started getting out of their cars and as many as 5 men would push these cars up the hill to safety.  Many of the drivers of the stuck cars would be so frustrated and feel so helpless that they would want to call for a two truck, but Derek convinced them that that would take forever (if ever in that weather) and then would help get them going again.  It was remarkable!  Derek hadn't brought any gloves, so he wore mine.  It's good to be married to such a good man.  It's also good to be married to a native Utahn who knows a lot about ice/snow driving! 🙂