For the last 5 or 6 Christmases the Mister and I have switched back and forth between staying home and traveling to Kansas to see my family. This year was a Kansas year and I was really looking forward to it, mostly because I would get to spend several days with my 6 month old niece and share in her first Christmas celebration.
The years this occur we have an early Christmas with the Mister's family. This happened on the 20th and although small it's always a good time. This was at his parents house who have recently moved about 3 mins from us! His brother was there with his soon to be Mrs and she had her niece and nephew, which was fun to have some younger ones running around and keeping us entertained. I am grateful that we can do an early Christmas and although it is a little different than having it actually on Christmas it is still such a blessing to spend the time together.
Now the weather for Christmas was not looking promising for the plain states and they were calling for a blizzard throughout all of Kansas. My dad was very concerned we would not be making it out there but I remained hopeful. Our flight was set to leave on Christmas Eve morning and was landing in Wichita. That morning the first thing I did was check the weather and things were looking good. Our flight took off and landed without any trouble, no snow in sight. However before we even got out of the airport the snow and the wind had picked up. My mom picked us up and we were on our way to Salina (where my dad's parents live). We planned to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Salina with my dad's side. My brother who lives in Wichita also left for Salina. My parents had had my niece for the week so she was already in Salina with my dad and grandparents. By the time we got there the snow had stopped and things were looking pretty good. Well...for us anyways. The rest of Kansas was getting hit pretty hard. My two uncles and my cousins we all coming in from Kansas City, well this did not happen. Many of the main roads were closed and one uncle was completely snowed in and stuck.
So Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my dad's side was very low key but nice. Now the day after Christmas our plan was to have Christmas with my mom's side at her parents' house. Well as you can imagine they too had so much snow they didn't want anyone making the trip and possibly getting stuck or worse. So Christmas with my mom's side was canceled. Salina quickly became our home away from home for the weekend. It was nice and I know my grandparents loved to have the extra time with us. And usually our trips to Kansas during the holidays means spending numerous hours in the car driving from place to place so it was nice we didn't have that but I do hate that we didn't get to see my aunts, uncles, cousins and their little ones.
I am very thankful that the blizzard didn't keep us from getting to Kansas and I am very thankful we all remained safe; however the Blizzard of 2009 (which will now be referred as) really put a kink in our Christmas plans. I did have a blast spending two days with my niece and I have some great pictures I will post (hopefully before the next week passes).
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