I left the year with an excruciating trip out to visit family for Christmas. Fortunately the weather was good most of the 1300 miles. And the weather was a strange 40 degrees or more. This plummeted later with Christmas snow that no one can argue with... Well except that the locals there didn't know how to drive in snow and they don't have a polished plowing system. Nobody died during the crazy holiday with all of the cramped living space and home comings after long years past. Even the kids didn't get seriously hurt, although my son did ask when we were going home about 4 days before we did. The food was good and even in these meager times all of us had the chance to give a gift to everyone. The kids made a pretty good sum of candy and toys which only added to the pandemonium. New years eve was visited with an unusually difficult and funny game called "the wrong game". Go get it. It's a blast. By this time however I was in no mood to once again challenge my aging ability to traverse nearly half the continent with three children of ages 1, 4, and 5 also with my wife who can get motion sickness and who is just at the third part of her pregnancy with number 4. Whew. It's enough of A drain just to say that. But we made good time and fair weather most of the way through even though a serious snow storm chased us. We left later so that the kids could sleep through the night while I drove. We stopped for dinner that night for ..... Yes, when asking a child what their choice would be for dinner.... Pizza is on a very short list. Godfathers pizza and a good hour and a half later and we were on the road again. Unlike previous trips with one less child we drove strait through and didn't have any car sick children. We stopped at grandma and grandpas for a little 4 hour nap before the last 300 miles which was really nice. It was good to see them too. Finally Home. Yes we made it. Upon arrival in the cold homeland I sent the family to the other grandparents just down the street while I commenced shoveling the two weeks of snowfall. Two feet at the front of the house where it fell off the roof and 10 or 8 inches along the rest. It's amazing how different it is to shovel a massive amount of snow like that after a 22 hour drive than to do so from a fresh start in the middle of a leisurely day. But to pull into a clean driveway for the next week is priceless. School will start a month later than I anticipated and so will financial aid. A few side jobs on the table but with so short of a time to the start of school and literally thousands of students flooding into town at another school swooping up the job market..... This will be a tough month for sure. Wishing I could sell prints of my work but I don't have anything set up nor do I have an inventory. So the year is new and the circumstances are old and similar. Goals are just a continuation of past goals unfinished or unaccomplished. This year will see tremendous change in global and local attitudes with respect to events that are inevitable. Strange that the year ends with Christ and begins too often with a resolve that doesn't have his spirit in it... He having been left in the holiday past. Gifts have been received, coffers emptied, travels experienced, family remembered then left behind with promises to keep in touch more often, and we all return to the hum drum of what we were so enthusiastic to leave when the holiday began. I then. Can only say that we all be grateful we survived our adventure. That we be grateful we saw our loved ones and that we shared our wishes and fair share of emotional ups and downs. Work hard. Find time to play. And as for me...spring cleaning has already begun :) . Take care everyone. Remember Christ, and help someone out this week. Just because.
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