In the Light, In the Dark.

in the light.

Christmas was fabulous!

But the drive there and back almost did me right in.

We drove twenty hours there and twenty hours back home again, and it would have been rather enjoyable if not for the small humans in the back seat. They sure do know how to make things... challenging... what with all their chattering and crying and fussing and carsickness and 'Is that mountain utah? Is THAT one utah? Whaddabout that one?'

(For every single mountain! Or hill! Or speed bump!)

It was really rough, but I would do it all over again to be able to spend that much time with my family. We don't get to be together like that very often, and it really is worth whatever it takes to get out there.

near the end. when the desperation was setting in.
"here! just gut a box of kleenex, son!"

I keep catching myself glaring out the window at my car.

Because I am MAD AT IT and don't want to talk to it for a good long while.

in the dark.

Tonight, around 4:00, it started to snow. Moments later, a transformer blew down the street (KABLAM!) and we lost power for four and a half hours.

Our house was cold as all heck dang.

But we made the most of it and read books on a pile of blankets in the living room and figured out how to pop popcorn and brew tea using only these little camp stoves Chris had made out of soda cans years and years ago- back in the days when he was in my same College english course at UNR and he only showed up to class 30% of the time, yet somehow managed to get a better grade than me at the end of the semester. (Oooh I was AM STILL miffed about that.) I kept thinking as I watched him light these little aluminum contraptions how we'd never have dreamed we'd be using them almost a decade later to make yummy treats for our family on a dark, snowy night in the plains of middle america.






It was brilliant fun.

I have the fondest childhood memories of when the power would go out when we were growing up. We always lit the fire and piled in the living room and had a grand ol' time reading books and making forts.

What about you? What did your family do when the power was MIA?

It's Ice Storm season, and I need to gather some ideas.....

:)