Christmas Finally Arrived!

After arriving in Seattle, we found that our flight to Salt Lake had been canceled and we’d been rebooked on a flight for the following evening. We could wait around on the standby lists and hopefully get out of Seattle on an earlier flight, but the chances of that were pretty slim. We did stick around for about 10 hours, hoping to get on an earlier flight, but finally, after being bumped from number 2 on the standby list to number 23, we decided to head for the hotel room that we had thankfully reserved earlier in the day. When we arrived at the hotel, we found that ours and one other reserved room were all that were available. In fact, the only hotel that the manager knew of with rooms available was across town. Everything was booked because of the huge storm that had hit Seattle. Even the Amtrak trains had canceled trips and the bus lines weren’t running either. Seattle isn’t used to getting the kind of storm that it had that weekend. Mike and I were a day later getting to Salt Lake than we had planned, but the advantage was that we were more fully rested for having spent the night in a comfortable, warm hotel room, and we were bumped up to first class for the trip to Salt Lake. We’d actually been able to fly first class from Anchorage too. I could get used to that.

When we arrived Monday night at Mom and Dad’s house, we were surprised to find Chad, Cory, Fiona, and Mia waiting for us. They were all so excited to see us and the feelings were very much reciprocated! I miss my children and grandchildren so much. I’m happy to know that they’re all living their lives and doing well, but I miss the interactions on a regular basis. Fiona and Mia spent the night with Papa and Gramma that night and then the next day they went to spend time with their mother. That gave Mike and me a chance to get the Christmas shopping finished that we needed to do on Tuesday – well, some of it

Poor Mom and Dad – the invasion only got worse! Meghan had been in Utah since the 16th visiting friends and her dad’s side of the family. Meg was dropped off at Grandma and Grandpa Grant's house on Tuesday, and then Mike’s mom and step-dad, Lorraine and Lloyd Berezay, came by with Chad and Cory later on that afternoon. There were people everywhere!

Bright and early Christmas Eve day, I was out grocery shopping for everyone and finishing up the last of the shopping. It was quite strange to not have everything finished before that. We also weren’t as elaborate in our gifts this year, but that’s ok. The greatest gift of the season beyond the birth of our Savior was the gift of being together as a family. Watching Meghan, Cory, and Chad banter and bicker as we played cards together was so fun. I’m grateful that after 10 years as a family, our children love each other and have grown to truly be brothers and sisters. I’m always thrilled when I hear someone comment about how neat our family is and that it’s difficult to tell which siblings are blood siblings. To me, that’s the success of our family.

Christmas Day was a beautiful snowy day. The only hitch to all of the snow was in knowing that Nicole and Jason were driving in it. Their normal three-hour drive from Twin Falls to Salt Lake took over eight hours on treacherous roads. Grant and Kristin came from Vernal after spending a few days with Kris’s family. They had some rough roads as well, but made better time than the Idaho kids. My sister Michelle and her family made the trip from Moab, so now the house was truly loaded! We had a great dinner which included the last of the homegrown turkeys from our house. Mom and Dad have a lot of room in their freezer now without that big bad boy in there. The turkey was too big for Mom’s oven, so we thought we’d use the roaster, only he was too big for that as well. I had to cut his legs off and pack them in around him in order to fit the entire bird into the pan. Boy was he tasty, though! When Nicole and Jason finally made it to the house, my world was complete! I listened to all of the noise and felt such a warm glow knowing that all of our children were there; our granddaughters were giggling and snuggling with us; our parents were with us; my sister’s family was there – I was truly content. Mom asked me later if Christmas was everything I’d hoped it would be. It most definitely was! I’m grateful to Mom and Dad for the use of their home. It’s big enough to accommodate everyone and there wasn’t much space that we weren’t using.