Winter Wonder Land

It seems funny to me that the Christmas my siblings decide to stay home is the Christmas that La Grande looked like this:


On Christmas Eve my mom and I even sun bathed in the backyard and got a pretty good tan (and no tan lines might I add).

But last year was quite the opposite. When I arrived home from serving in the North Carolina Raleigh Mission in December 2008, this is what I came home to:

We couldn't get into the front of the house because the drift was about seven feet tall at the peak and extended from the front door to the gravel parking spot. We had to make a path through the back yard and to the garage in order to get into the house.

On Saturday--the day of the Waite Family Christmas Party and the day before my homecoming talk--we had a blizzard and weren't able to get out by driving on our gravel lane. So we had to pack up, bundle up, cut through our neighbor's fences, and drive with 4-wheel drive vehicles through hay fields in order to get out. That night we stayed at my grandma's house.

We had to leave Tony and Heather's car behind:


The next day I gave my talk and had the party. Eventually my dad cleared out the lane and Sunday evening we moved back in. Shortly after arriving back home, luck would have it, our power went out. But mom was a prepared boy scout and had her head lamp:


So if you wonder what kind of weather we will have next Christmas, just give Heather a call and ask if they're coming home. If they are, it will probably be a bad winter with many blizzards. We don't read the Farmers Almanac, we just check Heather's plans.