We left for Wichita KS the night of Dec 23rd after John got off work. The weather was still clear so we went ahead and decided to go through with the trip. We stayed in Wichita weds night. Christmas Eve we first went to Uncle Ronnie's to open presents with my mom and dad then celebrated with the Engelbrecht side of the family at Aunt Sandie & Darrin's home in Clearwater. The year after Grandma died our family started a tradition of having a "dirty Santa" Christmas gift exchange. Every year it gets better I think! Each person buys a gift and it goes into the pile. With 25+ people it gets pretty crazy! Everyone draws a number and then on your turn you either unwrap a gift or "steal" a gift from someone else. There were a lot of nice gifts this year, thus resulting in a lot of "stealing" but SO much fun!
After Sandie's house we decided to head home. The weather was getting really bad. John and I learned that we will NEVER EVER attempt to drive in a blizzard EVER again! It took us 7hrs to drive from Clearwater to our house...normally a 3hr drive. The interstate was closed once you got into OK so we took Hwy 400 to Hwy 75 home instead. The roads weren't bad as we started our trip, just some spots of low to zero visibility. By the time the roads were bad enough we could barely drive on them, it was too late to turn back. I made sure family and friends knew where were were at all times just in case...something I hope to never have to do again. At one point in our trip, John and I thought we were stranded. Our GPS had guided us down some county roads, trying to take us the shortest route home. Lesson #2 learned..don't always trust your GPS! Once John was able to turn the car around (At this point we couldn't see out our back window and could barely see the front of our car), we stopped and zoomed in on the map and found a way back to the main road. Once we made it to Bartlesville the snowed slowed down and the visibility got better where we could actually see the roads. All 5 of us were tired, car sick, hungry, and just wanted to get home so bad! Poor Cody couldn't hold on any longer and 20 miles from home he got sick in the car. Luckily he got most of it on the blankets we had laying around, which made John and my cleanup job a little easier once we did get home. I truly believe God and every one of our guardian angels were watching over us that night! Thank you to our family and friends for praying for us! We promise we will never do something that stupid ever again!
Christmas morning came way too fast! We all went to bed around 2am and then the girls woke us all up at 7:30am to see what Santa had brought. Cody wouldn't wake up until he heard Santa had brought him his Wolverine truck he had been asking for every time he saw Santa!!! The kids opened their gifts from Santa, then moved on to gifts from mommy and daddy. Oscar and Annie got some gifts too! We all also opened gifts from Grandma & Grandpa Carlson, Aunt Missy and Uncle Dan, and Aunt Jenny & Jimmy. We love every one of our gifts! Thank you all so much!
This time of the year always makes you step back and thank God for everything you have. We are very thankful for all our family and dear friends. Merry Christmas to you all!! We love you all very much!
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