Finally- Home and online

My 'vacation' from blogging lasted longer than planned, as did our trip to Rhode Island, thanks to a dead modem and a blizzard. This was the first time in many years that I have not had to work on Christmas Eve, so yay for having extra time off and enjoying the pre-holiday. We were busy busy cleaning for Sectaurs and Minnie, who came up on the 23rd to join us. That was nice- the visit, not the cleaning!

They drove home on the 25th and we headed to R.I. as we have for years. My birthday is on Christmas and my parents always had my party Christmas night, to keep it separate from the morning festivities. Over time, this evolved into a holiday tradition that moved to #5's house after my folks felt they weren't up to hosting the noise and confusion any more.Last year  #5 and spouse moved to an apartment and #3 offered her large home for the get together.

Which was good in some ways- #3 has the largest family and she's closer to CT for those relatives, but not-so-good in others- It's a whole 25 minutes or so to get there (That's a JOURNEY for Rhode Islanders) and the road to her house is narrow, windy and hilly. A few years ago my father tipped his van over there. Yes, that's right, hit a rock growing out of the roadside and slowly tipped over.

Anyway, I upset the apple cart this year by deciding I couldn't do the party this year. We get up Christmas morning and open our presents, have our cinnamon rolls that we can only have this one day out of the year (OCD kids grow up to be OCD adults), then we drive 4 hours to my parents' house. Ms M and Mr C come down to meet us, we go to visit J's family gathering for a few hours, then we head back to my side's party. It's exhausting and I felt like I wasn't getting to spend much time with our kids. I made the executive decision that we were cutting the day short(er).

When my father sent an email saying he and my mother would not be going to #3's either, since his dialysis had been moved to early Sunday morning, it caused an uproar. There had been some family drama already and #3 felt we were canceling Christmas, as did a few others. I did some explaining, and after #4 juggled her work schedule, we decided on a Sunday afternoon party instead. All was well.

Then, the Blizzard came. Cue the ominous music.

Yes, the snow stole Christmas. J and I drove my dad to his dialysis since the flakes started swirling early, and we thought my mother shouldn't drive. We drove the back way home and came up through Narragansett to check out our old house and the beach.

 

Not our old house- the Towers and Narragansett Beach. We saw several people walking to their cars, carrying beach chairs. Odd. Maybe they were watching the sun rise, although it didn't show up as this eastern view shows.

It wasn't that bad at 7:30, but it slowly started building up, and the party was called off.  In hindsight we should have driven home Sunday ahead of the snow, but we didn't and had to wait until Tuesday to make our escape leave. But I believe the gathering is planned for this weekend (we won't be there) so all's well that ends well.


Ameranth would say that the worst part of the trip was the actual drive down. Anna is always a very good traveler and we give Rosie a pill for her car sickness, so she sleeps most of the time. Boomer naps for maybe an hour then starts yelping a high-pitched bark that pierces the brain. Usually right behind the driver. We took out the middle seat and put a dog bed on the floor, thinking that perhaps sharing the seat and getting more attention might help him be quiet.

 

Can you see the demon light in his eyes? He did not want to to sit still.

 

I give Ameranth a lot of credit for not actually harming him, showing great restraint. That's one dog that does not take a hint.

Thank you to my parents for putting up with our dogs (and us). We had a great time, as always.