Let it snow!!!

We went to my parent's house on Christmas Eve around 11:00 AM.  It was sleeting on us as we were driving.  Who would have thought that was just the beginning of a winter wonderland in the frozen tundra (that is what we have nicknamed our new stomping grounds in OK).

Case and Grandma Billie hanging out waiting for lunch to get ready.

After lunch, the kids were dying to play in the snow.  Here Jarett is all bundled up, and ready to go out into the blizzard--yes--it was a true blizzard!  You could hardly see down the street it was snowing so hard and the wind was blowing so hard.  Since we did not have snow shoes, the kids wore plastic bags on their feet.

Jay and Raevan sledding down the neighbors hill during the Christmas eve Blizzard.

This is a picture of my dad.  Jarett is on the saucer ready for the next ride down the hill.  When he reached the bottom, he stood up and was balling.  The saucer blew 30 feet away, and his glove flew 15 feet away.  I picked him up and carried him to my parents house, and he told me that the snow was cutting his eyes.  Poor kid, the snow really did hurt if you looked into the wind.

Case stayed warm inside.

Raevan was proud to get an American girl doll.

Jarett and Korbyn playing dress-up.  These are toy soldier costumes Robin found--I thought they looked ready for pair skating competition.

Case enjoying the sheepskin rug given to Gran and Grandad by the Bian family.

Christmas eve with Grandad.

Case's first Christmas.

Raevan holding her cousin.

The view of my mom and dad's backyard on Christmas day.  The kids had much more fun playing in the snow on Christmas when it was sunny, without a drop of wind.

"These Target bags are the bomb."

"Anyone seen Macy lately?"

Macy liked to give others a push down the hill.

Oh what fun it is to ride a saucer down the hill.

Macy laying in the snow.  It's deep.

Raevan going down the hill.

Macy pulling Korbyn on the saucer

Jarett decided to slide down head first.

We did not have Christmas morning at our house till about 4 pm.  Don't you love Jarett's expression.

Here's the story.  After spending Christmas eve day at my parent's house, we planned to go home so that we could put cookies out for Santa and wake up at our own home Christmas morning, then head on to Waco later that day.  We loaded in our mini-van and pulled out of the garage around 5:30, just after dark.  It took us 20 minutes to get out of the drive and headed to the entrance of their neighborhood.  We got stuck between their drive and the street and did  not want to end up in the drainage ditch.  Once we headed out, we drove all the way to Memorial Road.  I called my mom to tell her we made it, but already saw 4 cars in the ditch (we had only gone 1 mile, and I was in tears and praying as we drove).  She told me that her aunt said all the interstates in OK were closed.  We needed to take I-35 to get to our house!!!  We crossed the lake and got to memorial road and up the hill to I-35, and saw about 4 more stranded cars.  You could see nothing but solid white blowing snow as we looked at the interstate.  That's when Jeremy asked me if I wanted to turn around, to which I replied, "yes."  We had about 7 miles to go, and several hills to climb to get to our house.  

We got turned around okay and made it to within one mile of their house, when we got stuck going up the hill.  The tires just spun and the car would not move.  Jeremy got out to push and told me to drive and not to stop if we started moving.  He would walk home--I broke down a little, as I did not want to drive my children though the snowstorm.  Luckily, a snowplow headed by before he could push us out.  The guys got out and helped push, but our car was plum stuck.  So, he hooks my car to a chain and pulls us around the corner with the plow.  Thankfully, we did not get stuck again till we were in front of my parents house, and my brother and dad were able to push us out.    They also helped push the car behind us toward their home--he had been trying to get home for the past 4 hours, and had only driven about 15 miles!!!  I am so thankful God was watching over us.  We never turned on the TV before we left their house, and did not check road conditions on the internet, but later we found out that the airport received 14 inches of snow and Edmond got a whopping 6-10 inches!  

Okay, the next delima was that I only brought enough diapers for that day, not for spending the night!  We made it through the night by letting Case's diapers get pretty wet before changing them.  By 11:00 am, I had one diaper remaining.  My dad decided to take me and Case to our house in his four-wheel drive truck, so that I could prepare for Christmas morning (I still had some packages to wrap) and for the much needed diapers.  Besides, Santa left a letter on my parents tree that our presents were already at our house.  We drove all the way to our house and it took 40 minutes (usually 10-15 min).  The whole way there we saw countless stranded cars and semis.  Entire interstate exits were blocked with stranded cars!  It was crazy!!!  Dad got me to the house and I realized--I had no keys.  You can imagine that I was frustrated with myself.   

Dad drove me to Walgreens to get diapers and we went back to my parents house for a few hours before my dad took me back to our house.  As we were leaving, Jeremy asked if I had his keys--"no."  

"I can't find them anywhere," he said.  I took my mom's key to our house so that we could get in, and dad drove me home again in the truck.  I gave my dad keys to our car, and he took them to Jeremy.  Jeremy finally arrived home around 4:00.  The kids were troopers!  They had a blast opening their presents from Santa around 4:30 pm.  We did not leave for Waco till the next day, and later that night, dad called saying he found the keys--they were in his pocket.  Thankfully, we deduced they were not in his pocket when we made the first trip to our house.  It all worked out, and we had a lot of excitement.  The kids enjoyed spending more time with their cousins, and my dad and I got lots of one-on-one time, which we had not had in a long time.  This is one Christmas I will never forget.