thwarted by snow

So today . . . was christmas, one of my favorite days of the year. we always travel to oregon to spend the holidays with our families. we always drive, because that is just what we do. it is more affordable than flying and we kind of enjoy the time together in the car (all 17 hours of it!) even though some years we have been delayed in the mountains by snow and ice, we always make it. then we spend christmas eve with my extended family, christmas morning at my mom and dad's, and then christmas afternoon and evening with rollie's family. it is always the same, and we always look forward to the opportunity to see our families since we live so far away. but this year was different. the week before christmas i started getting emails from my mom about the weather. it was snowing and snowing hard! and more snow was in the forecast. for a while we thought we might not be able to make the trip at all. but we finally decided to give it a try and hit the freeway at 1:30 a.m. we arrived safely, although the last 40 miles was slow going as the roads were snow and ice covered. but we made it! and it continued to snow. it was beautiful. we took walks in the snow and took pictures of each other. we wore our new coats and hats that were purchased in anticipation of the snow. and it snowed some more. we braved the slippery roads to finish up the last few items on the christmas list and go to starbucks. we walked around the neighborhood at night to look at the lights. and it kept snowing. on christmas eve we learned that about half of my extended family was not going to be able to get to our family gathering. oh well, i thought, there is always next year. then we learned that rollie's parents were not going to be able to make it for christmas either--they had 7 feet of snow at their house! finally it stopped snowing, but it was still cold! we enjoyed christmas morning with my family, and then started up the mountain to my sister-in-law's house. we got about 3/4 of the way there and had to turn around and come back, because the snow was so heavy on the road we couldn't get through. so our christmas this year was different. we didn't get to see all of the people we love, and that was disappointing. everything was covered in snow, and while it was beautiful, we weren't able to get out and run around like we usually do. still, i'm glad we made the trip--we enjoyed the snow and got to see some of the people we love. but i hope that next year will be back to business as usual!