Dinner

We said goodbye to Boulder on Christmas Day. It was my Mom's first Christmas away from my Dad since they were married (sorry, Mom and thanks for the help with the move) but at least we were sent off by the beautiful Colorado snow. It had started to fall early in the day and it looked like it was going to be a long night, so we stopped for dinner somewhere in Nebraska.

During our stops, I observed our fellow weary travelers and I think they felt as we did - standing in the sparsely populated lines at rest stops and gas stations. I think we were all quietly reflecting on the perilous conditions we had just experienced on the roads and the Christmas traditions that we missed by our own unique circumstances. Since no restaurants were open except truck stops, we scrounged up some microwave hamburgers, hot dogs, and burritos for our Christmas dinner. We sang songs in the car and hoped that we wouldn't be one of the 30 or so vehicles in the ditches, overturned, dark, twisted, and silent.

We decided to stop for the night and found a lovely hotel with ajoining rooms. After the boys had been cooped up in their car seats for 8 hours, they were like brand new slinkies, all over the place with no chance of retrieval. Rolling on the floor, jumping off beds, climbing on chairs, running down the hall, knocking on doors, finding treasures left by the last inhabitant (ick), using the hotel stationary, picking up the phone, ordering room service..... we couldn't believe our good fortune. Safe and sound with a warm bed.

Merry Christmas.