The Thursday after my cancelled flight I went to work to a surprise bacon and waffle breakfast as a consolation prize for not being able to go home. Thanks friendly boss and fellow co-workers!
Midway through my day my mom called to see if I could immediately fly to Vegas and drive through the night with my dad to Boulder. Why the heck not?!? I didn’t have my perfectly packed suitcase with stocking stuffers from Trader Joes or my birthday present for my dad…but I guess I didn’t reallllllllly need any of my clothes or underwear, or knitting projects, or swimsuit (which I wouldn’t wear anyway), or down vest, or jeans, or sweaters, or makeup or my freshly purchased chapstick which I was so excited about, or books, or Cooper’s brand new digitial camera which I was going to play with and take really good pictures of my family, etc. Nope, I didn’t need any of this stuff. Instead, I hopped on Bart with my beatup yellow North Face backpack and headed out with nothing more than the clothes on my back and workout clothes in my bag.
I met my dad in Vegas with visions of winning $298759283752 on the slots in the airport casino…but instead we made a quick getaway and started for Colorado. A highlight of the drive: getting monster tacos from Jack in the Box with my papa. He craved the same tacos that I was drooling over in my head so we made a taco stop and had a taco eating contest. I love my dad.
Luckily papa Bruce was wired and wanted the drive for the full 12 hours so I got to sleep. The roads were clear all the way until we hit Golden and Boulder, thank goodness! The snow was beautiful and bright and the ony signs of the disastrous storm were the stranded cars stuck under several feet of snow. We made it home at 9:00am and immediately started dancing with Amelia to the singing santa decoration.
My big and little brother along with my little big brother’s new wife arrived this morning at 3:00am with their monsterous dog Finney. We now have a full house of two “non-committed” kids, two married kids and their spouses, the two parentals, four dogs, and a baby. It is going to be the Christmas we had intended all along! No big storm gets in our way!
If anything, I suppose I wish I had a few more clothes to wear. My late 90’s high school jeans and sweaters look a little funny, but I guess it isn’t as bad a wearing black jeans (which Cooper Carras was reported to have been seen in recently).
Merry Kwanzaa, Happy Valentine’s Day, and don’t forget to do an Irish car bomb.
p.s. Greg…did you make it?!?!