Christmas 2009, Part 1

Because of the weather and road conditions on Christmas and the day after, we did not head down to Strasburg for Christmas day as planned. Instead we stayed in the house. I ventured out to take our little wiener dog with her short legs on her bathroom breaks - mainly to keep her from going on the deck. She usually does not do that but didn't like to head out in the yard in the cold winds. As far as the family, we had a couple of lazy days of sleeping in, watching movies, and taking naps. A couple of us even took naps during movies!

My brother Harvey had driven back home from Wyoming on Tuesday and my brother Doug came from South Dakota on Wednesday morning. My sister Lisa and her family from South Dakota had planned to drive home on Christmas morning but of course could not because of the weather. My brother Duane and his wife Betty live out on the farm and I think their boys drove back from Bismarck on Thursday during the day or late evening. Those that were there had the Christmas get-together as planned at Duane and Betty's house that evening.

On Sunday after the weather moved out, our family did drive down to Strasburg after I had our snow cleared out at the house. Harvey had left for Wyoming but Doug was still there. Nancy and I and the kids opened our gifts from Mom and Dad.

Four of us kids had gone together on a gift to move Mom and Dad into the digital age with a point and shoot digital camera. Unfortunately, I had purchased the camera and then was not able to get it to them until Sunday. Duane and Betty came over for supper and were also there when Mom and Dad opened the gift. The folks were very happy and appreciative.

After supper my Dad broke out the slide projector and we took a look at five or six reels of slides. That was fun - my kids sure seemed to enjoy seeing the slides of their much younger (and slimmer) Dad. We did drive back to Bismarck yet that night and pulled up to the house at about 10:45. Our "house" neighbor was outside and super thankful that I had also cleared out the snow from in front of his garage.

Part 2 of Christmas 2009 is planned for later this week . . .