An 18th Century Christmas

Christmas was interesting this year, to say the least. I was worried that Neil and I would get home for Christmas at all, with all the airport issues. But on Tuesday, I watched all the SFO/PDX departures and everything was departing on time, so I thought we'd be fine. When we got to the airport, everything was really quiet, and our flight was still scheduled to depart on time. Then, around 6:00, when we went to get dinner, I happened to glance at the departures screen and noticed a change in our flight - delayed. Now scheduled to depart at 11:50pm!! NO!! They changed our gate three times, and eventually we departed at 11:00pm, which was better, and atleast our flight departed. So, in the grand scheme of things, a few hours later was not too bad. We arrived in Portland at 12:30pm and flying in and seeing all the white on the ground was really strange - and beautiful. It was so quiet and peaceful and white. Mom and dad picked us up and we went to Chelsea's to collapse into bed. It was kind of a long travel day, and I finished a whole book while we were at the airport. 

The next morning we awoke to snowflakes gently falling down, with an accumulation of a couple of inches already by 8:00. Chelsea already had about 6-8 inches on the ground when we got there, which is pretty strange for Vancouver. With the snow already falling, we had to depart for mom and dad's house early, to make sure we got up there. In hindsight, we probably should have skipped this part and just stayed at Chelsea's - with electricity and heat and all those modern conveniences. :) A little foreshadowing there, perhaps? :)

We met Barb at Grandma's house and loaded up the van and Chelsea's car for the trek. It was really slow going - took about an hour to get up the road, and it usually takes half that. When we pulled into mom and dad's, Neil shoveled out a parking spot for Chelsea (he's used to shoveling snow, having grown up on the East side) at the bottom of the hill. Because there was so much snow, driving the cars up the hill was out of the question, so the only way to get up to the house was on our own two feet. Mom and dad gave each other snowshoes for Christmas last year, and I don't think they knew how much those would come in handy this year. They had already been using them to make a path up the hill, and Neil led the way with the snowshoes to break a trail through the new snow. We loaded up the two toboggans with all of our Christmas presents and trudged up the hill, the snow still coming down. I don't have any pictures of this part of the trip - the camera was still packed. 

We finally got everything up to the house, after two trips, and there was still power at this point, so we were nice and cozy in the warm house, while the snow piled up outside. Neil and I laid down for a long nap, and when we woke up, things were no longer so cozy - the power had gone out... So, we lit the fire, and the candles and the lanterns. It was cozy in a different way. Mom and dad have a gas stove, so we could still cook - which was nice - but not a turkey or a ham, so mom put some chili in to warm up and dad cooked hot dogs and we sat down to a lovely Christmas Eve dinner of Chili dogs. Fancy. Actually, it was very nice. Devin said a really wonderful prayer, and he prayed for the power to come back on. 

I know this is a dark picture, but I wanted to really show what it was like! :) After dinner, Devin finally got to open one present - he had been waiting for this all day. Earlier in the day, he told me, "Auntie, I sure am anxious to open my presents". Heehee

It was a book about the Christmas story, so he and Poppa read it together. Right about then, the power came back on. Hmm... It was strange to have so much light after the darkness, and so we actually turned most of them back off - the only lights we had on were the Christmas lights. It was really pretty. I tried to take some pics of the snow outside.


Then, it was time for a squirmy little Devin to go to bed, and Neil and I headed up to the "wrapping room", aka mom's bedroom, to wrap all the presents we brought. We were talking about how nice it had been with the power off - nothing to distract us from being together and enjoying each other and a few seconds after Neil mentioned it, the lights went out again. So, I guess we negated Devin's prayer somehow. Mom started playing Christmas carols on the piano, and it was a really lovely evening. Very quiet and calm and warm, with the leftover heat from the power, and the woodstove cranking out the warmth. We all finally straggled off to bed with flashlights. 

I didn't have visions of sugarplums dancing in my head that night, I had visions of electricity. But when we awoke, it was not to be. Still no power Christmas morning, and the snow had REALLY started coming down. We pulled out the cheese ball (christmas morning tradition) and got to the presents, without Christmas tree lights or Christmas morning traditional music. But I'm slowly learning that it's less about the traditions, and more about being together. Great-grandma and Lila were not able to be with us, because of the hill and the snow, and they were greatly missed - it was just not the same Christmas without them. Art, Linda, Crystal and Nic were also not able to join us in the afternoon, and that was different as well. 

But Devin loved opening his presents from Santa. He got a big semi-truck, filled with little cars. It's a little boy's dream and when he opened it, he said, "it's just what I wished for." So cute:

Devin helped us all open our presents, and every time he helped he would say, "I sure hope this one is for me". Oh, kids. :) It just kept snowing harder and harder the whole time we were opening presents and by noon, when we finished, there was atleast 6 inches of new snow. Neil and I strapped on the snowshoes and went for a walk down the hill. It was a winter wonderland - beautiful, peaceful white wonderland. It was a wonderful walk. 

After the walk, it was lunch and another nap. This one I could not wake up from. Everyone else headed up on the roof to shovel the snow off - 4 feet of snow on a roof is not usually good thing and so we needed to try to get some of it off. I could hear them on the roof above me, but could still not manage to wake up. It was a really strange feeling. When I finally woke up completely, the roof was shoveled off, everyone had gone off sledding and it was almost dark. I headed outside to try and snap a few pictures before it got too dark:

Then I found everyone sledding on the hill on the toboggans - the snowshoes path made a perfect chute for the sled:

Christmas dinner was Costco pasta from a bag which ended up being delicious and got us all powered up for - singing Christmas carols around the piano. Like I said, it was a different Christmas. :) It was actually really fun, though. My mom played all the traditional carols - the first Noel, Silent Night, etc. and we sounded terrible, I'm sure - but it was great fun once you got over the initial embarrassment of hearing your own voice. Then we sang all of the songs from the Yale School Christmas play and that brought back tons of memories. I still have all the lyrics to most of those songs memorized. Whenever I hear Silver Bells, all I can think of is that this song signals the beginning of the Christmas play. I love it. We sang "will you come", "little gray donkey" and "up on the housetop". We finally got Chelsea to join us on the last few tunes, after Poppa took over reading Devin a story. Neil refused to join in - I guess he just wasn't ready for that kind of humiliation. :) We'll get him someday, though - I have a feeling this will become a new Christmas tradition - off-key singing around the piano - even when we have power. 

We laid Devin down for bed and then gathered around the coffee table for a game of hearts. Dad promptly shot the moon on the first hand and then Chelsea managed to get the Queen every round after that. But I ended up losing anyway, somehow. It was fun. 

The next morning we packed up and got the heck out of Yale. No power is fun for awhile, but then you get cold, and run out of water, and haven't flushed the toilets in a few days. So, you see, the shine starts to wear off. The roads were finally plowed and clear and we headed down to GG's house in Woodland for a gathering with the rest of the family - Grandma, Art, Linda, Crystal and Nic. 

When the family started to get a little bit older, and bigger, we decided not to exchange gifts with everyone, we started doing a gift exchange. It's always fun. Neil didn't participate this year, because he is low on $$, so I didn't have an "ally" in the exchange. See, in a gift exchange like this, it's always good to have someone to be in "cahoots" with, so that you can get the best chance of getting something you like. You have to form alliances, and make deals. Nic happened to be sitting next to me on the couch, so I wheeled and dealed with him, and we joined forces to get just the gifts that we wanted. Neil and I ended up with two $15 itunes gift cards, and Nic ended up with a $30 amazon gift card. Perfect. Overall it was very fun, and there was some good gifts this year. 

Then, Neil and I headed off to visit Lila in Aberdeen. The doggies greeted us at the door in full Christmas regalia:



We had a really nice time visiting with Lila and the doggies. All the doggies are such good friends - in order from largest to smallest: Buddy, Smoky, Homer, Lola and Swarley. Buddy keeps his eye out for the little guys. And Lola had decided that Homer is her new boyfriend - she flirts with him shamelessly. Poor Homer doesn't really know what to do with all the attention. On Saturday, Steph, Lee and Sydney joined us for some spirited present unwrapping. Good presents were had by all. Grandma Lila got Sydney decorating some Christmas ornaments for next year. They were masterpieces. Then Steph and I settled in for some episodes of What not to Wear and the rest of the household took naps. It was very relaxing. After naps was a delicious turkey dinner (our first one of the holiday) with mashed potaotes, stuffing, corn, rolls and finished with chocolate pie from Costco. Delicious. My stomach is growling just thinking about it now. Steph and Lee headed home after the dinner and Lila and Neil went to hit the stores for some after-Christmas browsing. I stayed home and snuggled with my little doggies. It was nice. We watched the Dark Night and called it a night. It was a really nice visit and nice to spend time with Lila.

We headed back to Portland the next day for lunch at our favorite neighborhood pub, the Lucky Lab. It was really nice to have a laid-back lunch there, catching up on Portland news through the Mercury and the Willamette Weekly. San Francisco's weekly newspaper is not nearly as good. After a good lunch and a good beer, we headed back to mom and dad's. The power was back on, finally! 

The flight left to head back to S.F. at 7:00 on Monday and mom, dad and devin dropped us off at the airport. Devin liked the escalators and the baggage check. We said our goodbyes :( and settled into the Laurelwood pub for once last local beer. I miss Portland beer so much. For those of you in the Portland area, I highly recommend the Laurelwood Winter Warmer - Nut ale. It was delicious - such a nice beer. Our flight went off without any hitches, and we found ourselves back at home in S.F. in our apartment by 10:30. And it was straight to bed for me, as Tuesday it was back to work and some good news was waiting for me! (see previous blog). 

Overall, it was a great Christmas in a lot of ways, even if it was sort of strange and different. I don't think I would want that much snow every year, but it was pretty for awhile, and I think the power being off really made us slow down and enjoy each other a little bit more. Merry Christmas to all! Hope it was magical for everyone!