It's Christmas time...in the country

We spent our Christmas with Veronica's family in SD. Due to the snowstorm of the century, it was quite eventful! We got to SD on 12/23 and enjoyed time with family. The snow started falling, the wind started blowing and the snow started drifting. We had a little break from snow overnight, but by mid-morning on Christmas Eve, the weather was getting bad again. Christmas Eve mass was canceled, so we had family church at home. We continued on with our traditions of a chili dinner and opening gifts around midnight (Isaiah was the lucky one, he got to open gifts before his bedtime!). :)

Christmas Day, mass was canceled again, so we hung around the house playing games (Veronica got the game Bananagrams, which is really fun), having some great meals and wondering what the rest of the day would bring weather-wise. We were supposed to head over to Veronica's aunt's house, but we stayed put because the roads were not in good condition.

The day following Christmas, we were supposed to head to Nathan's family's house, but we were not going anywhere! The tractor would not start, so plowing the 100 yard driveway was not an option. In fact, Veronica's mom got up early to start shoveling the driveway by hand...it took her about 3 hours! We were all packed up just waiting for the plows to come through so we could head North to St. Cloud. Little did we know, the interstates were closed! We really were not going anywhere! Again, we played games, ate great food and relaxed. It was wonderful time with the Gaidelis family; having everyone home with nowhere to go, made us stay put and enjoy each others' company. Everyone seemed to enjoy time with Isaiah and with each other.

Sunday, we packed up the car and got out of the driveway at 7 AM. Little did we know that when we got out of the driveway and headed onto the gravel road that it would be drifted shut! We reversed the car back into the driveway and began brainstorming. My mom and Nate went out and shoveled the gravel road! At 9, we attempted to leave again. After lots of reversing the car, pushing and more shoveling...we made it onto the county road! WHEW!!! It was only 9, but already we had a lot of excitement behind us. The drive that normally takes us about 5 hours ended up being 7 hours of white-knuckled, 35-45 mph driving. Since Veronica is not comfortable driving in those conditions, Nathan got to drive the whole way. Isaiah was wonderful in the car. Often after a few hours in the car he is just done and ready to get out, but this time he stayed happy almost the whole ride. Yay Baby!

We had a wonderful though short time with the Langers. A lot of wonderful food, family time and giving (did you notice how I started with food? Not by mistake, the food was wonderful!). We arrived there around 4pm and most left around 8:30 p.m.. So the visit was short but we were all glad to at least have made it for that short time.

Monday morning we headed back to Duluth. Once we got home we were happy to see our beautiful city and the 24" of snow that we got. Thankfully a couple friends came over to help us shovel or we still wouldn't be out. We also hired some neighbor boys to help shovel the front, best $5 we have ever spent (though he offered to do it for $3).

All in all it was a wonderful though unexpected week of Christmas celebration. A first Christmas for Isaiah that we definitely won't forget.