Christmas Catchup

All right, hear me out as I catch up on all our Christmas fun. First off--I must mention how our Christmas Vacation began. It's definitely one for the books. We spent Christmas in Roseburg, Oregon this year. So the plan was to leave on a Monday morning, but the freeway that connects us to Portland was closed because Portland had a freak snowstorm--it just got dumped on and Portland NEVER gets dumped on. So they shut down the freeway and we couldn't get through. Tuesday morning we woke up and decided we needed snowtires if we're going to make it to Roseburg through the back mountainous way. So after throwing down $500 for snowtires (ouch!), we were loading our stuff out to the car when we heard that the freeway had opened again. So we were on our way finally! We made it to Portland slowly but safely, but had to stop at Jon's sister's house because their poor car was buried in snow and they needed help getting unburied (I should have taken a picture). So after doing that, we went to the airport to pick up Jon's parents. (They were taking a quick break from their mission in Mexico to see their son get married on Dec. 27th).

So we all loaded in our car and off we went on the typically 31/2 hour drive to Roseburg. We were all starving, but decided to jump on the freeway and get out of Portland traffic before stopping to eat-estimating we'd get to a restaurant in about 20 minutes. WRONG. We hopped on the freeway from the airport and not too long afterward we were stopped in standstill traffic. From there we just INCHED forward for the next 6-7 hours. It was HORRIBLE. At one point we literally drove five miles in FIVE HOURS. The reason being is Portland shut down that portion of the freeway to de-ice it and then seconds after opening it two semi's collided and clogged it up again. There was no where for us to go, but to wait. So....our normally 3 1/2 hour trip from Portland to Roseburg turned into 11 HOURS. We were finally able to stop for food at 2:00A.M. and as we took our final exit to Roseburg the clock read 4:45 A.M. We had driven all night because we had picked up his parents from the airport at 5:00 P.M. the night before. Crazy. It was the worst road trip ever and even now as I'm rehashing I'm feeling the pain all over again. But at least everyone finally made it there safely. (I should mention that Jon's brother Joel and his wife Amy were in a different car, same area, and had as much trouble as we did. We all pulled into Roseburg about the same time that morning. Although they probably had it worse because they had two small kids and no grandkid-starved grandma in the backseat to play with them).

Christmas itself was great. Isaac begged to go to bed on Christmas Eve, which I personally consider a Christmas Miracle. The next morning he discovered that Santa brought him way too many toys-the highlights being some superhero suits, batman gloves, and a Nascar Electric Race Track.
We had a great time hanging out with everyone, playing games, and watching movies. It was especially great to meet our sweet new nephew, Simon.


Isaac and Eli. Cousins are the best!
Messing around with Aunt Jess. Jess is one of Isaac's favorite people.
Grandma D and all her grandbabies. I love how everyone ignored my camera except Isaac.
Tux-right after Isaac tucked him in and made sure he was all cozy and warm. Can we just get this poor kid a dog already? We keep telling him when we get a house. This year sometime...Then on Dec. 27th "Uncle Mac" married this foxy lady. Isn't she beautiful? They had a beautiful wedding and reception and Jon was the best man. They were also so sweet to include Isaac in the wedding by asking him to draw a special picture that was to be used somehow. He felt so honored and so he worked very hard at making just the perfect picture. Well, when we walked in to the reception area, his picture was displayed right by the guest book and it completely thrilled him to see his picture framed and looking so good. We think we have a budding artist in our midst.

The view from his parent's balcony. It was so weird to see Roseburg with snow.

Overall, it was a great Christmas. Oh, I forgot to mention that my 29th birthday was also on Christmas Day. 29!! I need to start cracking on my list of stuff to do before I turn the big 3-0. For my birthday Jon promised me U2 Tickets because they have a new album coming out and hopefully they'll tour this year. Also, he made me an amazing Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake from scratch...which I also deem another Christmas Miracle.