Planning ahead for family celebrations is always wise. Being able to roll with the punches is also ideal! This year involved unpredictable weather, ongoing health of family members, and of course reliable transportation.
We do not make a big deal of decorating our home at Christmas because we usually drive to our daughter’s home on Christmas Eve and come home on Christmas Day. Just enough time to hug everybody, enjoy opening gifts and share Christmas eggnog.
This year we had the outside lights on one of our dogwood trees and a tree by the front door…perfect all month!
We plugged in a small ceramic tree that belonged to Bert’s mother many years ago. That, along with two special snow globes and a small creche scene was the focus at our house.
The two days before Christmas Eve, you may remember, was a big snow storm followed by a drastic drop in temperature…at least here in Pennsylvania. We had about 6″ of snow over two days and then the temperature dropped 40 degrees overnight. We did not lose power but Bert was kept busy over two days shoveling and plowing and then putting down anti-skid material before we hopped in the car to make the 2 1/2 hour drive to Kathy’s on Saturday.
Before we left the driveway, we got word that Anna (10) was sick with strep…but not Covid. We agreed to not hug much when we got there and we headed out.
O my goodness! I could not believe the roads! It was a long slog over the mountains where it didn’t look like a snow plow had worked very hard to clear the road. Maybe it was Bert’s white knuckles on the steering wheel that was unsettling!
Kathy’s house, as usual, was beautifully decorated for the holiday!
I really wanted pictures of the whole family but it just wasn’t appropriate to cram us all together to get posed pictures…so I managed to get a whole lot of selfies.
You would think by Sunday, Christmas Day, the roads would be much better coming home. In town things were wet and slushy. However, over the mountains…
I guess Kathy and Steve both were under the weather by Monday. Bert picked up a head cold that has lasted most of this week. So far…I’m fine (fingers crossed)!
So, we had a great holiday visit with the kids and grandkids, but getting there and back was challenging. Of course, this weekend the temperatures will be in the 50’s with rain! Go figure!
Happy New Year!!
Please comment or contact me directly at marykisner@comcast.net.
Hi Mary….your holiday sounded a lot like ours! We also made the scary trek over those mountains to our daughter’s house outside Pittsburgh on Christmas Eve, but came home on Tuesday… the roads slightly improved, but not by much. Hope 2023 finds you happy and healthy….I look forward to reading more of Mary’s Musings.
Glad we both made it safely!