Once upon a Christmas

Last night the kids and I were looking through a picture album. They all wanted to hear the story of our 'big snow' in Ohio and our subsequent trip to Columbia, MO to carol on Christmas Eve to the SF Slades. We had planned on spending Christmas with Sheldon's family, but 3 days before our trip Ohio got the storm of a century--30 inches of snow in one storm. It took us an entire day just to shovel our sidewalks and the driveway, working in shifts. We didn't even bother with the front walk, since we couldn't open the front door with all that snow blocking the doorway. Travel day arrived and our street still hadn't been plowed, and with a minivan there was no way we could travel through that much snow, so we canceled Christmas with the Slades and resigned ourselves to a much quieter holiday at home, snowed in. I even broke out the powdered milk from food storage because we'd planned to leave the fridge empty.

Ben, however, was determined to not accept defeat, and when we woke up Christmas Eve to see tire tracks down the middle of the street he was sure that he could dig out a path to the tracks and we could follow them out to the main road. Long story short, he and three of our neighbors did--and pushed the van out until we started sliding downhill. It was a harrowing trip along an icy I-70 until we hit Indianapolis, where the road became dry and clear. We didn't warn the SFS's that we had made it out and surprised them by caroling on their doorstep that night. It turned out to be one of our best Christmases ever, and our kids still talk about that trip--and the trip to Nauvoo to finish celebrating!

So, Sara, in the spirit of the season, I've found a song for y'all to play for your family. Pretend we're caroling to you again, even though we're too far away to see you for the holidays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuncdzVat5g