A Christmas to remember...

This year was Bella's first Christmas...and it was definitely one to remember.

We left from New Jersey on Wednesday at about 10:30AM.  We knew we were going to be driving and I had been dreading it ever since we decided that it'd be cheaper (it really was, and its probably a good thing we did, with all the delays at the local airports out there).  The first day wasn't bad at all.  We made a few stops but we drove until about 1AM.  That's when Travis decided that it was time to find a hotel and stop for the night so we could get some rest.  I wanted to keep going (I was wired because it was the first time in a year that I had a Full Throttle...I LOVE those), but with checkout time being at 11 at most hotels, we wanted to be able to relax a little bit and actually get some rest before we had to head back out on the road.

Neither of us got much sleep.  Bella had slept a good part of the drive (when she wasn't being a fusspot because she's not real fond of her carseat...at least not for long periods) and was ready to be awake for awhile.  She slept for about two or three hours after we got her settled and then was up and fussing about every hour for a few more hours before we gave up. 

We were slow to get started because we were both tired.  Once we got everything loaded back into the car (it was ridiculously cold out and we had to lug a lot of stuff into the hotel room, because there was a bunch of stuff we didn't want to freeze in the car), got breakfast, and got back on the road, it was about 11AM again.  Bella slept better in the car again, but got to be pretty fussy throughout the day. 

The weather wasn't too bad for us until we hit mid-Missouri.  It had been cold but we started hitting the east side of the blizzard.  The roads got nasty FAST.  I think we literally drove into a wall of ice.  I felt bad that Travis had to drive through the whole storm, but I was not comfortable driving in it, especially with all the cars we saw that had slid off the road.

We took it really slow for the rest of the trip.  I think 40mph was our top speed after hitting Kansas City.  That's when we hit the snow.  It was NASTY out, but we slowly made our way.  There were a few times that I was almost in tears because I was freaked out.  It wouldn't have been so bad but the wind was blowing the snow up and making it hard to see.  I don't know how Travis kept the car on the road some of the time, because we literally couldn't see a foot in front of the car...but we were out in the middle of nowhere by the time, so there really wasn't an option to just pull off and stop somewhere.

Once we hit a small town about 12 miles from my hometown we got stuck.  And I don't mean that we finally gave up on driving through the storm, I mean that we hit a snowdrift in the road that my car couldn't get through.  We couldn't back up, couldn't go forward, we were just stuck, on the wrong side of the road, at 2am, ONLY TWELVE MILES FROM HOME.  Mind you, this is after driving 1250 miles...

I was freaked out.  I'm surprised the "oh shit" handle on my car didn't fall off, considering how tight I was holding on to it.

Luckily, the drift we hit was actually in the town.  I called my parents and they tried to come over in their blazer to get us (they have four wheel drive, so they thought they'd be able to make it).  I got a phone call a few minutes later saying that they weren't going to be able to make it, but my little sister's friend's dad was going to come see if he could get us out.  They lived in the town that we were stuck in and he worked for the city, so he was going to see what he could do.

While we were waiting for him, a cop spotted us and tried to get to us, but he got his SUV partially stuck trying to get to us.  He ended up walking through the snowdrift to us to talk to us.  As soon as he saw that we had an infant in the car he called in the troops.  Between him and the guy that was originally coming out to help, they had 6 or 7 people out there digging us out.  The only vehicles that could get close were the plow and the grater.

The cop said that the local hotel was full (yeah small town area and there is only one hotel) and they didn't want to try to take us across town anyway, so my little sister's friend's dad said that we could stay with them.  I felt really awkward because I had never met any of her family before, and I felt awful since it was Christmas and I was going to be intruding...let alone the fact that it was our fault that he got out of bed at 2am and I didn't know anyone except his daughter.

Well, they got us un-stuck and we started following him back to his house.  It was slow because the roads had been grated but they were still nasty (the wind was horrible and was just blowing the snow right back across the roads).  We got about 3/4 of the way there and got stuck again.  It wasn't nearly as bad.  We had just been driving in his tracks (he had a big 4WD truck and had no problem) but we hit another drift that was just too big for us.  Travis got us backed up and he tried to drive over the drift a few times to pack it down, but it didn't work.  So he ended up hooking up a chain to the front of the car and pulling us through.

We got to their house and he had us park in his neighbor's drive (they aren't living there right now and he said it'd be better than leaving my car in the street).  Once we got everything we needed (and everything that could freeze) unloaded, we started getting warm and trying to get Bella ready to at least get a little more sleep.

She wasn't having that.  She had slept for quite awhile and was ready to play again.  Luckily my little sister's friend said she was wide awake and offered to play with Bella for awhile so we could get some rest.  I wanted to hug her, but I was so exhausted that I couldn't.

Unfortunately that didn't last long either, because Bella got really fussy for her and she didn't know what to do.  I got her fed and changed again and she finally went back to sleep for a little bit.  It only lasted about two-three hours, but when she woke up my sister's friend came back out and offered to take her for awhile again.  I slept for about another hour and then went downstairs to hang out, because I knew getting more sleep was out of the question.  (By that time it was about 8AM.)

That's when I met her mom.  It was not nearly as uncomfortable as I expected because their other kids were stuck in Topeka because of the storm and they were all sorts of excited to have company, especially a baby.  I got to hang out and relax while they were playing with Bella and keeping her entertained.  She got a little fussy but not too bad.  Travis slept in until 1pm.  I wanted to wake him up because I was more than a little jealous of him getting to sleep in, but I knew he needed his rest from driving through the storm the night before.

We were there until about 3pm when my parents were finally able to make it over to pick us up.  They said the roads were still too bad to try to bring my car, so we had to load anything we could up in the blazer and leave my car where it was until the roads were better.  We had to leave a few things in the car, but not much.

My sisters, nephews, and brother in law were all waiting for us when we got home.  I was excited to see them all but I had been so stressed out that my mom and I went straight to the kitchen for a shot.  My mom had brought Bella in the house while I helped unload the blazer and by the time I made it in the house my older sister had already stole Bella and was cuddling her.  It was so nice to know that there were other people there to help with her so I could just relax for awhile.  (I had help that morning, but I felt awkward since I didn't really know anyone except my sister's friend...and eventhough I trusted her it felt like I was pushing my kid off on her.)

I barely saw my own daughter that evening.  We ate dinner, played with my nephews, got settled and opened presents and all I really did with Bella was give her a bath and open presents.  I felt bad though because she was still kind of a grump from being in the carseat for so long, but at least they were finally getting to meet her!

The rest of the night went alright.  She was kind of a fusspot but she had been awake most of the day so she went to bed at a somewhat normal time and slept pretty well.  The next day Travis and my dad went over to get the car since the roads had been cleared out quite a bit.

Since then Bella has returned to her usual goofy self.  She loves having people talk to her and will sit there and just coo and giggle when people make funny noises at her.  I'm happy that we get to stay here until the 8th or so, but I am already dreading the ride back to New Jersey and I'm honestly more than a little worried about the well-being of my cat, who is currently being taken care of by Travis's sister.  She's got an automatic feeder and water dish, but it'll need filled at least twice while we're gone and his sister has trouble remembering to feed her own cats.  I've been bugging Travis to keep asking her how Duckie is doing because if my cat doesn't have food or water or acts like she's been neglected when I get back, there will be hell to pay.

Blah.  Okay, so I guess that's enough of an update for now.  I SHOULD go to bed, but I think I'm going to go browse the web some more because I've had a lot of caffeine today and I finally got rid of my headache!