I don’t think anyone in eastern Nebraska will forget the Christmas blizzard of 2009 for awhile. This was a doozie - a snow event that lived up to childhood memories of how it “used” to snow in Nebraska.
The rain/ice started on the 23rd. It proceeded to cover every outside inch of everything in ice. On Christmas Eve the snow started in the early afternoon. It wasn’t done until the morning of the 27th.
Needless to say, this totally bungled up our Christmas plans. My mom was in town visiting from Missouri. I had taken the entire week off so we could have lots of holiday fun together – going to the movies, Christmas shopping, and general hanging out. On Christmas day we were all planning to head to Sterling to spend the day with Dennis’ folks. As it turned out, Dennis, Addie and I celebrated a very quiet Christmas day at our place, my mom was stuck in a hotel room by herself for 3 straight days, and we’ve yet to celebrate Christmas with Dennis’ family.
I love my family, and I’m a true homebody, but there is a profound difference between choosing to say home and being trapped at home praying we didn’t lose power or our sanity. I’m being a bit dramatic, but when our neighbor came and plowed out our driveway I wanted to climb into his tractor cab and kiss him.
So, I’m in mourning for the Christmas that wasn’t. No oodles of time with my mom. No Christmas Eve church services. No time with extended family. When I called my parents and could hear everyone’s voices in the background as they gathered for their Christmas dinner, I wanted to weep.
Still, I need to rejoice for the Christmas that was. We were abundantly blessed. Everyone was safe and sound (I personally know of someone whose son was killed on I-80 during the storm, and another who suffered a scary medical emergency during the blizzard – see Misty’s blog at left.). We could have been stranded on the side of the road or sleeping on the floor of the airport. What in the world did I have to gripe about?
It made me think about the virgin Mary. I’m sure her Christmas plans weren’t exactly what she had in mind!
This was a beautiful Christmas. Dennis kept our fire roaring. We had plenty of food and fun. We sledded. We skied. We built a snow man. It was a regular winter wonderland for goodness sake!
That being said, I’m still greatly anticipating the full-on family gathering. So what if it doesn’t’ happen until next year.
The rain/ice started on the 23rd. It proceeded to cover every outside inch of everything in ice. On Christmas Eve the snow started in the early afternoon. It wasn’t done until the morning of the 27th.
Needless to say, this totally bungled up our Christmas plans. My mom was in town visiting from Missouri. I had taken the entire week off so we could have lots of holiday fun together – going to the movies, Christmas shopping, and general hanging out. On Christmas day we were all planning to head to Sterling to spend the day with Dennis’ folks. As it turned out, Dennis, Addie and I celebrated a very quiet Christmas day at our place, my mom was stuck in a hotel room by herself for 3 straight days, and we’ve yet to celebrate Christmas with Dennis’ family.
I love my family, and I’m a true homebody, but there is a profound difference between choosing to say home and being trapped at home praying we didn’t lose power or our sanity. I’m being a bit dramatic, but when our neighbor came and plowed out our driveway I wanted to climb into his tractor cab and kiss him.
So, I’m in mourning for the Christmas that wasn’t. No oodles of time with my mom. No Christmas Eve church services. No time with extended family. When I called my parents and could hear everyone’s voices in the background as they gathered for their Christmas dinner, I wanted to weep.
Still, I need to rejoice for the Christmas that was. We were abundantly blessed. Everyone was safe and sound (I personally know of someone whose son was killed on I-80 during the storm, and another who suffered a scary medical emergency during the blizzard – see Misty’s blog at left.). We could have been stranded on the side of the road or sleeping on the floor of the airport. What in the world did I have to gripe about?
It made me think about the virgin Mary. I’m sure her Christmas plans weren’t exactly what she had in mind!
This was a beautiful Christmas. Dennis kept our fire roaring. We had plenty of food and fun. We sledded. We skied. We built a snow man. It was a regular winter wonderland for goodness sake!
That being said, I’m still greatly anticipating the full-on family gathering. So what if it doesn’t’ happen until next year.
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