The Best and the Worst of Christmas 2008

Our family Christmas celebrations had pretty much outlived their shelf life. Given the distance between families, the crazy schedules we all keep and the general lack of enthusiasm, getting together for Christmas had gotten about as stale as an outdated box of crackers. So, we decided to clean out the proverbial Christmas Pantry and restock the shelves with a fresh batch of celebration. We decided that our first purchase would be airline tickets to Wyoming. My oldest brother, James and his family, have lived there for over 30 years and we had never spent a Christmas with them. We visited in the summer, when the roads were free of snow and there was no threat of the highways being closed. Very safe, very warm, and very, very many miles to travel in a car. With the rising cost of fuel, we decided that flying would be a great adventure and would save us time and money in the long run, what with the price of meals and motels that we would not have to pay for. Tickets were booked and the long months of anticipation began to fly by. We notified one niece, since we needed to coordinate dates and time, but decided that part of the fun would be to just pop in and surprise everyone on Christmas Day. Finally, the day before our departure arrived and we went into a flurry of packing, laundry, cleaning, securing the horses and the dogs, and all the other last minute prep that travelling entails. As our luck would have it, we were hit with an ice storm that very night, forcing us to leave our house at midnight on Christmas Eve, to creep along to the Cincinnati Airport at 25 mph on treacherous roads. What should have been a 2 1/2 hour trip turned into a 5 1/2 hour journey of teethgrinding intensity. We did arrive early for our flight, claimed our boarding passes and settled in for a little nap before flight time. In just a little while, the waiting area began to fill up and before we knew it, we were on our way. We left Cincinnati at 8:05am on Christmas Eve and set down in Casper, Wyoming at just a little after 12:00 noon. It was a great trip, even with all the landing gear noises and turbulance. We spent the evening at my niece Debi's house, planning our big surprise for the next day and just enjoying being together with this part of the family. We slept in on Christmas day, which helped pass the time until we were to meet part of the family so they could lead is in to the little log cabin where they were having their celebration. There are 36 of them, far too many for any one of their homes. Adding us made a total of 40 loud, laughing family members, all bent on enjoying each other and the season. We did, indeed, surprise James and Lula, my brother and sister-in-love, when we walked in the door to that rustic cabin. There were tears and laughter and hugs and kisses, and more of the same. We played games, ate ourselves stupid and tried to catch up on years of lost fellowship. Talk about a fresh approach to family Christmas. It was good for all of us. We planned on extending it through the next three days, but SOMETHING threw a wrench in those works. On Friday, the day after Christmas, we met again at Debi's to play more games and eat up the leftovers. We were just getting started when the first young'ins threw up on the living room floor. We blamed it on the eating of too many shrimp and garlic-stuffed olives, but before the dawning of Saturday, more than half of us were in the throes of the stomach 'flu, with the rest to succumb by the time Sunday came. It wasn't the ending of our visit that we were anticipating, but I've got to hand it to my family. We're a great family. We share ANYTHING we get with EVERYONE we love. Whether they want it or NOT.