Christmas in O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A

We visited my sister for Christmas in Oklahoma this year, and had a fantastic time. Very memorable. For starters...

• We arrived on a beautiful Wednesday afternoon. We got to stay in one of my sister's neighbor's houses because they were out of town and wanted someone to house sit. What a blessing that turned out to be! The down side was they didn't have kids and their house was decorated like something out of a magazine. First things first...baby proofing! Everything breakable was lifted about 4 feet off the ground.

Here's Mr. N holding a very tired L in the house we stayed in.

• The first night we were there (December 23rd) a blizzard blew in! Yes, a blizzard in OK! They said it was the worst storm they had had in 20 years. We'd just left 2 feet of snow in NJ so thought it was ironic to then hit a blizzard in OK. There wasn't a ton of snow...I honestly don't know how much because the wind was blowing like nothing I'd ever seen! The next morning we lost power at 8:00 am. The 10 foot walk to the car to drive to my sister's was seriously treacherous! The wind literally blew me in a standing position across the ice.

My sister's husband took the kids out and built snow men after the blizzard blew in. They, of course, had a blast!



• We had planned out "Christmas Dinner" for Christmas Eve night...but with no power that went out the window. Instead we ordered take out from the only place open in town...Pizza.



• My brother in law got his generator running close to night fall, so they were able to plug in their refrigerator, my sister's sewing machine, and a lamp. She and I sewed the kids Christmas PJ's by the light on their one dim lamp and the light bulb of the sewing machine. We got them done just in time to have the kids put them on and read Luke 2 (by lantern) and open a present. After that there was nothing left to do (it was too dark) so we went to the house we were staying at and put the girls down.

Like the jammies!






• It's amazing how much light a single candle can give when it's pitch black everywhere. I loved that.




• It was freezing! We had no power and the temperature was in the teens!!! My sister's house luckily had a wood burning stove, but we weren't so lucky. I couldn't believe the weather. We had thought we were going to get a nice little break from the cold in OK, but no way. The girls slept in multiple layers and our bed fortunately had a goose down comforter on it, so we were warm. We still slept fully clothed in sweaters and socks. The girls both ended up in bed with us. It was just too cold!





• The next morning (Christmas morning!) we still had now power. By this time I was cursing my dear sister for praying for a white Christmas. She got her white Christmas, but the entire town she lived in lost power (well, most of it...). I told her she'd prayed with a little too much faith when she prayed for a white Christmas. Her prayers were answered a little too potently. Just in jest though. The whole experience was rather fun. Anyways, as for our hopes of getting electricity back...there were whole streets that had poles that ran the electricity knocked down. Not a good sign. The poor girls were freezing.




• We got stuck in the snow on the way to my sisters. Whose idea was it to let my dad (who lives in TX) drive in the snow? He swore he knew how, but both Mr. N and I knew what was coming when he decided to drive on the shoulder rather than the well beaten path made by other cars. We were in a Camry after all! I could write endlessly about this particular occurrence...but I'll keep it short.




• Finally the kids got to open presents! My poor sister's kids were dying waiting for us to arrive! What a relief it was for us adults to enter a warm house too! Bliss. I felt so bad for our girls. It was so hard to have them say over and over that they were cold and not be able to do anything about it!



• Christmas was fantastic!

• Good news: At about 8 or 9:00 am my sister's electricity came back on! We made Christmas dinner, which was so tasty.





Here are L and M rough-housing with Jdub (my sister's oldest). He was so funny. In description of M he said, "She plays rough for a girl." That she does...




• Bad news: When we drove the mile down the road to where we were staying I commented that it didn't look good because everything was dark. No electricity! Still. The house was freezing, still! The weather was still in the teens. The girls slept in 2 sleepers each and a sweater and socks. They still ended up in bed with us because they were cold. That made for a pair of very tired parents.





• The next day it had been 48 hrs without electricity. We were freezing, but retreated to the warmth of my sisters home. We got out of town that day, and when we got back at around 9:00pm we had electricity!!! We were thrilled.






This is us out to breakfast. See the snow in the background? There was also a swimming pool there and M kept asking if she could go swimming and I kept telling her it was too cold. Only a 2-year-old would want to swim in the snow!



• My sister's baby was blessed Sunday. She is adorable and so sweet, and she looked like an angel in her dress!








• The only place to shop in my sister's town is Walmart. I love small towns like that. I spent most my mission in towns that only had stop signs, so I became quite attached to them.




• M got a haircut! My camera had died by this point so I didn't get to take any pictures...my sister graciously provided on the previous post when she hacked into my blog account! :)




• Tuesday M got pinkeye. Icky. No one else has gotten it yet. She almost always manages to get sick when we can't go to the doctors or have to go to after hours...




• We left Wednesday (kind of) The airport was 4 hours away so we drove there and stayed overnight at a motel. The highlight of the trip was watching 3 cop cars and a pick-up truck trying to herd and capture a cow that had gotten loose just off the highway. Gotta love the south!



• We flew out Thursday and finally arrived home. I was so sad to leave my sister. It was such a fun trip, but it was nice to get home.