Happy Hanukkah!

Well, this has been a Christmas break of unexpected wonders. It started a whole week early as we had the beginnings of Arctic Blast 2008 and missed an entire week of school to snow days. Yes! (This was particularly enjoyable as my teaming partner is in Australia with family and I was making plans for the both of us.)

Luckily, I was iced/snowed in at my friend Penny’s house in Hillsboro, about 25 minutes from my house. I became “Aunt Alice” and started baking and cleaning and diagnosing and nannying and counseling and chauffeuring and imposing massive quantities of mommy-guilt. It was awesome!

During this week off, Penny’s son, Luke, Gabi and I made the world’s most awesome gingerbread house complete with rock garden, solar panels and smoke coming out the chimney. It was an energy conscious home. It is the year 2008 after all.

Saturday, I took my car in to get the alignment done and they reported that my car was not align-able and, in fact, not drive-able. Aaaah!!! So my dear friend, Penny Lou, drove me through the driving snow to my house where we cleaned my room, folded laundry and packed up for the upcoming trip to California for Christmas. The plan was to be stranded at Penny’s and then get to the airport on Monday for our flight.

Monday came, most of the flights were cancelled, but by some miracle ours was not. It was nearly time to leave on the trek to the airport (a two-hour tour since all public transportation was no longer working) when the flight was delayed slightly…by 20 minutes. Alright, we are packed, ready to go, better print the boarding passes so we do not have to check a bag or stand in the lines. There’s my flight….CANCELLED!!!

I had already called the airline and the earliest we could get to ANY location in Southern California was Friday night…the day AFTER Christmas.

BAH HUMBUG!!!

So it’s Christmas in the Northwest! We will hang with the Thornbrues. We love them and they love us! This is fortunate as we are in very close quarters and surrounded by piles of snow. We have at least 14 inches so far and are expected to get at least 2-4 inches more in the next day. The cold weather may have frozen some of our brains though. If you look closely, you will find that Ellie (Penny’s 11 year old daughter) and Gabi (my college-attending daughter) stuck their tongues to a light pole. The younger generation needs to watch and learn the lessons of A Christmas Story…I guess they’ll never win the major award.

This Christmas I am blessed to have wonderful friends who will house me, feed me, tote me, and most importantly love me. I hope you are all equally blessed this holiday season.