Yeah-I totally suck as a mom . . .

I didn't get a single picture at xmas. However-other family members had cameras so hopefully I get get a pic or video up soon. I really want the video of Josie opening up her first couple gifts-she was so excited and adorable.

Really-it's all Mother Nature's fault. By the time xmas rolled around my brain was complete and utter mush. Why you ask? Well, I'll tell you.

Four and a half days of being snowbound with a 2 year old.

Now I know it could have been so much worse. Some people lost power, ran out of grocery essentials like milk, bread, juice or alcohol; got stuck at the airport, train station, bus station, etc or completely missed out on traveling to see family. I get that. We were very lucky. On the Friday between snowstorms-I left work a little early to hit Freddie's with the rest of Beaverton to finish my xmas shopping and make sure we had enough groceries. And diet coke. And rum. ;)

However-since we had 14 inches of snow and we really couldn't go outside because neither of us had snowpants-we stayed inside save for one trip to the mailbox on the sled. It was really cold too-pretty uncomfortable just to go get the paper. And in the middle of the 14 inches of snow was a layer of ice from the freezing rain we got at some point. Salem had the reverse issue-mostly ice, some snow and massive power outages. My parents lost power for 4 days (luckily they have a generator).

So-4 days of endless videos/Dragon Tales/coloring/long naps (yeah okay-that was nice!)/more videos/wrapping/whining on the phone to whomever would listen (me) . . . . . You would think i would've gotten lots of projects done, but no. Miss Josie put the kabosh on any of that. She did let me wrap presents though. While I did the xmas presents-she wrapped whatever was lying around-some shoes, books, a cell phone, cat toys.

On Tues nite before xmas my brother rescued us and my grandpa to take us down to Salem since neither of our cars was going to make it very easily-even with chains. It took 4 hours to drive the 50 miles to Salem. I only brought one movie for the portable DVD player-so we kept watching Happy Feet. And since my SIL was making dinner and Josie had just gotten up from her nap-I hadn't fed her. Well-it was after 10 when we finally got there-the poor girl was starving and frustrated since I had her blanket in the back of the truck. She did pretty well though-didn't start melting down til we hit the outskirts of Salem.

Since my parents didn't have much power and therefore-not a lot of heat, no hot water-we stayed over at my brother's house. We had to cook xmas eve dinner at their house and then take it to my mom and dad's for xmas eve with us kids, the grandkids and my grandpa. It was still chilly so I didn't put Josie in her xmas dress-we all dressed warmly. It was nice-we had lights downstairs, the toilets flushed, etc. Just the bare minimum of power used-well-my dad did splurge and put on the outside xmas lights and of course-the tree lights were on.

We ate and opened gifts-Josie loved all her presents. She did really well-just got a little frustrated that we wouldn't let her open her toys right away so she could play with them.

This is the point that I was supposed to jump back in my car and drive to Portland to sing at the Cathedral for Midnite Mass-my favorite part of xmas. However-I had no car. And the roads were still scary. Still-I could have borrowed one of the many SUVs in my fam I'm sure and drove white-knuckled up the freeway. But I couldn't sing. I lost my voice AGAIN! So frustrating. It's better now-but I think I've got something weird going on in my throat and need to get it checked out. I was a bit crabby about all this, but what are you going to do?

The power came on at 8pm-yay! We stayed there that night-no way Grandma and the Papas were going to miss xmas morning with her! I was sleeping on the couch downstairs and since none of the clocks were right-I had no clue what time it was. Josie was sleeping with my mom and I didn't want to miss her seeing her huge Sully and stocking under the tree. So I went upstairs at some point (about 5ish) and watched TV/napped in the living room until I heard her wake up. Then I grabbed the video camera (hold the phone-just realized I DO have some footage from xmas!) and went in to get her up and follow her to the living room. It was kind of anticlimatic-she seemed confused as to what I was telling her (that Santa came . . .) but she did have fun waking up the Papas. Not sure my dad appreciated it too much. Hey-it was almost 7.

The battery on my regular camera was dead-so I didn't get any pics that day. And I hadn't bought a memory card for my new video camera yet-so space on the camera was limited. We finished the day at my grandma/aunt/uncle's house for xmas dinner and more presents . . . . and was ready for bed by 7. ;)

Oh-and it snowed both xmas eve and xmas day-kinda cool when you don't have to worry about going anywhere.

The rest of the vacation was very chill-cards, Wii, food and more food. And endless watching of Tinkerbell!