This shall be . . . . the longest day . . .

Disclaimer: This post is very long. Pictures will be posted later.

There was this one time when my sister was collecting and watching a lot of old WWII movies. I remember one night I watched "the Longest Day." Have you ever seen it? There is this scene in the movie where a German officer says, "This shall be . . . the longest day." It's very dramatic. It's also the best way to describe our Christmas.

I love Christmas. It is my favorite holiday. This year's was just very long. It started out at around 8:00 a.m. Christmas morning and finally ended around 9:00 p.m. on Friday.

Neither of us slept well Christmas Eve night. Perhaps it was the anticipation of Santa Clause or perhaps it was the wind that we thought was going to blow our house down. I don't know. There was an approaching storm. We got up and opened some gifts. A little after 9:00, we headed to my mom and dad's to open some gifts with them and Willie. Then, we ate breakfast. It was tasty!
Next, we headed to Grandma Huber's. For the first time in my life, we were the first people to arrive at Grandma Huber's. It was great! I helped get the day's snacks set up while James shoveled the walks. We exchanged gifts and visited with the GP's and the Stoker's for a little while. I gave Grandma some chocolate covered raisins and she made me hide them under the dining room table.

Next, we made a pit stop at home to unload and reload, then head north to have Christmas dinner with the Binggelis. The storm was coming. The wind was whipping. We discussed the possibility of the storm being bad enough that we should take an overnight bag. We discussed it again. James assured me that the storm was not going to be worse than what he has driven in before and we would be fine. We were prepared for the journey. We had coats and gloves in the car, a large umbrella, tools, chains for the tires, and snacks. We headed on our way!

The drive was very calm. Wind, yes, but no snow. We got to the Binggeli's and had a delicious dinner thanks to Alicia and we had lots of fun playing the Wii. James was sweating profusely as he beat everyone in Wii boxing. He also was ecstatic to the be the top scorer in Wii bowling (why bowling? well, that's a story for another day).

Meanwhile, the snow was raging outside. Around 8:00 p.m., we decided we better head for home. We did. We got on the freeway without too much sweat, but then it got really, really, really scary. We made it one whole freeway exit and then turned around and headed back. The snow was coming at warp speed to Endor . . . sideways. There was no apparent road. We could barely see the posts on the side of the road to mark where it was. There was only snow. Deep snow. Slippery snow. Scary snow. I think we were smart to turn around. I think we were dumb to not have prepared personal items to take with us.

We went back to the Binggeli's and everyone was of course very hospitable. There were pajama bottoms and t-shirts waiting for us. Mary had put clean sheets on the extra bed. She even washed our clothes for us. It was great. We played the Wii. We drank hot chocolate. We worked on a puzzle. In the morning, Mary even had brand new toothbrushes for us to use. Things were going dandy.

* * * * This post is very long. Take an intermission if you would like. * * * *

In the morning, the rest of the Binggeli's were headed to Rigby to see Annie and her family. James was feeling a little down that he didn't get to see his nieces and nephew, so we piled up and continued north. Now, I've always thought of myself as pretty low maintenance, but this was going a little too far. No clean underwear? No hair gunk? No make-up? No deodorant? No new clothes to put on? I know I had pajamas and clean sheets and a new toothbrush, but I still felt a little bit like I was camping. And on Christmas? Grrrrr . . . .

I don't blame James at all for wanting to see his family. I am spoiled and get to see more of mine that he does of his, so of course I said "Sure, let's go if you want to." So . . . we got in the car, got stuck in the driveway (we had also gotten stuck on the corner the night before), and after a small meltdown on my part, were well on our way.

We made it to Idaho Falls and visited the Idaho Falls Wal-mart for alcohol to put in the washer fluid so it wouldn't freeze (not in our car, but the Binggeli's). I also took advantage of the Wal-mart opportunity (I LOVE Wal-mart by the way) to buy some makeup and some Skittles.

We made it to Annie's house, ate turkey dinner, played with the kids for a while and then around 4:00 p.m. decided it was time to head for home. The roads were pretty good from Idaho Falls to about Malad. From Malad we literally slid all the way home. It was nowhere near as scary as the night before, but still very slippery. There were several slid off cars and some crazy drivers, but we finally made it home safe and sound.

I unloaded the car. I showered. James shoveled the walks at our house. He showered. We watched the news to tell us how much snow everyone got. James took out the garbage. It was still snowing. It didn't even look like he had shoveled. I unpacked and organized our Christmas gifts so they weren't all over the place. We ate toast. I wrote this blog.

Lessons learned in the longest day:
- I have great in-laws!
- My husband is a good driver!
- I love my little Honda. 159,000 miles and still going strong. Good car. Needs a bath, though.
- Never travel to Garland with and approaching storm without taking a change of clothes and necessary toiletries.

Good night and Merry Christmas!!