Saturday, December 26, 2009

It's Still Christmas For Us

Most of you celebrated Christmas yesterday but we're having ours today. Let's see if I can explain this convoluted reshuffling of days.

Christmas Eve night we made the decision to postpone our Christmas Day at our daughter and son-in-law's until today, the 26th. They live an hour's drive from us, waaaay back in uncharted territory. (Well, okay, it is charted, but very, very remote.) On Christmas Eve, the county pulled the snowplows off the roads at about 7 p.m. Snow conditions were bad with more snow forecast for Christmas Day. So the four of us decided to give the storm an extra day to blow itself out before trying to make it to their house.

We didn't get much snow yesterday, because it rained (yes, RAINED) for a few hours which pummeled our snow here into about 4" of slush. What a mess! Because Swamp River Ridge (our daughter and son-in-law's homestead) normally has colder temperatures than we do, they did get snow all day and as of last night, were up to their . . . well, they had a lot. (Close to a foot and a half, as far as they could tell.)

By plowing a couple of times during the day, they were able to keep their 4-mile long winter driveway open, but this morning we're waiting to hear if the 14-miles of county road from the main road to their spur road has been plowed. That could be our stumbling block.

We had rain all night. If they had snow, we might not be able to make it. Our huge county is well known for having several micro-climates and this divergence of temperature and weather is not unusual.

We've loaded up the truck and are hoping the plows have been out so we can make it. Our temperature is still warm (34° with rain) so it's not as if we have to worry about dangerously cold conditions. Now we're just waiting to hear from our daughter to decide whether or not to head out. Wish us a little bit of Christmas luck!

6 comments:

Jenyfer Matthews said...

Sorry to hear about the weather-related delays to your festivities but I LOVE that picture in the header of your blog. Did you or Chicken Mama take that?

Jennifer Jo said...

It poured rain here on Christmas. Poured. And today Mr. Handsome is butchering chickens in the muddy slush, soon to be muddy, bloody slush. I can't wait for summer.

Oh, and Merry Christmas, too!

Erin said...

Oh, I hope you get to have your christmas today! I heard that further south they had all that rain too, but then dropped down to 9 degrees promptly and it all froze on the roads, yikes! Be careful and have fun!

RuthieJ said...

We had rain and snow here in the southeast too. It was so weird to wake up in the middle of the night and hear raindrops hitting the windows! Hope this straightens out soon and we get back to a normal Minnesota winter!

Val said...

I heard on the news that people were stranded in airports and some may not even get to have Christmas. I hope you made it there safely.

Mama Pea said...

Hi, Jen - The new blog header photo is another fantastic one by my daughter. Wouldn't it make a great Christmas card?

Mama JJ - But think how nice it will be to have those chickens IN THE FREEZER! Never a pleasant task; even in summer!

Hi, Erin - I'm never afraid to drive through snow (well, almost never) but ice scares the bejeezus out of me! No matter how slow you go or how careful you are, it can getcha!

Hey, Ruthie - No kidding! Who would have thought we'd rain in Minnesota around Christmas??

Hi, Valerie - Thanks so much for commenting! No, we had no problems compared to those people stranded in airports or motels or on bad highways. Such an unfortunate time (the holidays) for this yucky weather!