The "Perfect" Christmas Weekend... gone awry!

We had planned a great weekend full of Christmas festivities! We were to be busy...but not too busy. The kids were to be entertained, but not overstimulated. It was to start on Friday after school with a visit to Santa (or as Chelsea calls him "Mimas Tree") and a ride on the little Christmas train. Travis had a play date arranged for Saturday afternoon and I was going to try to fit some shopping in. On Sunday I was going to sneak off on my own to try to finish the Christmas shopping and then we were going to visit Edaville Railroad to ride on the train and see the lights display. Our plans were over before they could even begin.

On Thursday night the ice storm began. We had lost power by the time I got home from a concert at 11:30. The rain and sleet were coming down in sheets and with no power, we would have no workable sump pump in the basement. We rescued the kid's Christmas presents just before they were soaked. By Friday we still were without electricity. Travis and I had no school. The house had stayed reasonably warm throughout the day as the water poured into the cellar. Last time we checked it was right above the first stair. John got his hands on a generator and started pumping. We had an interesting sight to behold when we looked outside that morning. Many trees had fallen, taking wires with them. I thought our neighborhood was in atrocious condition, but it turns out that we didn't get the worst of it. Here is a little of what we saw from our yard:



After a frantic call from my mother, we packed up the generator and our bedding and headed into Holden to sleep by her fire place. It always looked so cozy when the cast of Little House on the Prairie huddled around the Ingalls' fireplace. It would be like that for us, too! John needed to head to work and at least my mother and I would be together with the kids. Meanwhile John taught my mom how to run the generator to get the water out of her basement. It was a fullish moon that night and it was a beautiful, chilly view from my mom's front door.
We kept the fire going all night as best we could but it was still about 50 degrees inside the following morning. How did Michael Landon make it look so easy??? Oh yeah...it was just a TV show!!! John had to work again and was getting sick. Chelsea had woken up with a low-grade temp and a nose that was running like a faucet. That was all I needed to convince me that enough was enough. We were lucky enough to get one of the last rooms at a local hotel. Hot water, heat, lights that worked... in our opinion it was the lap of luxury. Here is Chelsea hanging out watching TV
Travis and Chelsea finally got to take a dip in the pool. It took two days to get his bathing suit. I hadn't packed one for him, as I was freezing when I was packing and swimming was the LAST thing on my mind. We hung out and watched Christmas specials on TV. We even ordered ice cream from room service.
Finally our power came on on Saturday night and we were able to light the pilot light on the furnace on Sunday. On Monday we had no school again and I felt that it was time to make up for our lost weekend. The kids and I headed to a local mall to see St. Nick and ride the train.
The kids were excited to ride the train. The didn't mind that they were seated in the caboose.
When it was time to see Santa, Chelsea sat with him but was shy about talking to him. Travis told him a few things on his list (no surprises for Mom, thank God!). In true Campbell form, the kids left Santa's pavilion and started running. Chelsea fell on her face and ended up with a bloody fat lip.

As for our experience with the storm that I have heard reporters calling "Operation Big Ice" it made me all the more symathetic for what the Katrina victims must be going through. We have been hung up for a little over four days. For the people of New Orleans, it has been over 3 years! I can't imagine. It was a wake up call to appreciate things that I take for granted, like hot water and a warm house. It made me grateful to be with my family and be able to keep my children safe and relatively comfortable. It proved to me AGAIN what strong and capable people my mom and husband are. So I guess the weekend wasn't a total wash after all. Inconvenient? YES! Uncomfortable? At times! But maybe we all are a little more thoughtful about what we have. Maybe we are a little more neighborly to the people who surround us on a day-to-day basis. Maybe we are more appreciative of our families and friends, who worked together to help each other during this mess. And if that stuff is now in the forefront of our minds, isn't that a large part of the meaning of this season?