Unexpected Christmas

Christmas 2009 has definitely been one for the record books. Oklahoma City recorded over 14 inches of snow on Christmas Eve. Because of all the snow, we were not able to pick Emily up from Nanny and Poppa's house yesterday. She'd spent the night on Wednesday night to help decorate Christmas cookies and ended up having to stay two nights instead.

Santa came to our house anyway. He brought lots of presents and left a stocking full of goodies too. He ate some cookies and drank some milk and left Emily a letter saying that he's sorry he missed her. She'll open her presents as soon as she gets home.

The first thing Emily told Nanny this morning was that she was ready to go home. We're going to try to make that happen today. Mike has been out working on getting the car out of the snow drift this morning. He has made good progress. It would be very helpful if we had an SUV or a truck or something a little higher than a car.

Since Emily is not here to open presents, Mike and I decided to go for a walk in the snow. I wish I had taken my yard stick with me to see how high some of the drifts were. The south and east sides of the house were some of the deepest areas.

Someone had been walking in the snow before we got there. Maybe a bunny?

The snow collected on some of the cedar tree branches. The snow and high winds broke off the top of one of our small trees in the front yard.

It was so so cold outside this morning. I think the TV news guys said the wind chill was something like 7 degrees. So we did not stay outside for long.

We came inside and warmed up. Not much we can do until Emily gets home so I thought I would write a long, long blog post to take up some time. Ha!

This is really not how Christmas was supposed to be. Mike and I had it all planned out. We have some nice surprises for Emily and cannot wait until she opens her presents. Christmas morning without our child is just not right.

Yesterday was the same way. It was hard just watching the snow and not knowing how we would be able to get Emily home. I spent most of my day keeping busy - cooking, cleaning, wrapping gifts, and making Christmas cookies.

I swore I was not going to make all those cookies by myself, but what else did I have to do? I could not find my Christmas cookie cutters so I made all the cookies round. The decorating was all me. Isn't it lovely?

I think our Christmas dinner with the family is going to be postponed so I don't know what we'll have for Christmas lunch. Probably sandwiches, devilled eggs and sweets. I don't think I have anything more gourmet than that.

I can't wait until Emily gets home.

Merry Christmas everybody! JESUS is the reason for the season.