Christmas Adventures

Our Christmas started with many adventures. First, we got all these snow falls. Then we got rain and snow again. Everything happened so fast that we did not have much time or chance to clean them up. Our drive way has about 6 inches of ice!. Then with snow days and winter break, all the kids have no school, but mom and dad had to work even on Christmas Eve. Luckily, we have wonderful in house babysitters. Toby and Josh did great job taking care of Anna and Jenny. They did not just stay home with them. They actually took them to swim in Aquatic Center and take slight rides in the snow. On Christmas Eve, they took them to Christmas Mass. Initially, Sue and Bert decided to go to 10:30pm Mass because the Christmas Eve Mass was at 5 pm. Luckily, Bert's company left them go home earlier and Sue decided to leave a few minutes earlier as well so the whole family was able to attend the Mass together. We were all active involved in the Christmas Mass. Anna and Jenny was in the Christmas play. They are two of the kings (or, shall I say wisewomen). Toby was a server. Joshua took care of the sound board. Bert and I were Eucharistic Ministers. It was a beautiful mass. We were glad that we made it together as a family.
We would have had more time if we were going with the original plan of leaving on the 26th to Orlando. But at the last minute, we decided to leave on the 25th instead. We struggled to find a hotel room for one more night in/near Orlando because the house we rent would not be available until the 27th and it seemed that all the hotel rooms were booked out. We managed to find a place in Gainesville, Florida. Instead of traditional family dinner at home for Christmas, we had Chinese food instead to save time so we could get the last minute packing done and still keep our tradition of opening the presents on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas Day, we managed to get on the road 4 hours later than I have planned (2 hours later than Bert's plan - he was more realistic than I was). Once we got on the road, all the stress of packing and preparing were put behind us. Kids were wonderful. They all quickly started their movies and everyone was excited and ready to go. Not a bit of complaints. The driving was easy. No traffic! There was only one minor problem we soon discovered that there was no place to eat. Even McDonald's was closed on Christmas Day! At about 7 pm, we finally found a Hardie that was open. Little we knew, it took us 50 minutes of waiting to get just some burgers! There were simply too many people in that little place with only three people working there. I think that was the only place open, besides the Waffle House, in the entire stretch of I65 between Gary Indiana to Nashville Tennesse. Needless to say that the burgers were great. We completed our first stretch of the travel relatively easily.
Our real adventure started on the 2nd day of travel. Soon after we passed Atlanta, we stucked in a traffic jam. Crawling 2 hours at about 2 MPH. We got so bored and started to do statistics on license plates around us. We found out that there were at least 4 other Michiganers were in that jam together with us. Our car seemed getting heavier as we inched in longer in the jam. I suddenly realized that the car started to loose power. This had happened before when we stucked on I94 on our way to Chicago with our last Anhui family reuion. I soon pulled over to the side. Yes, there was. The transmission fluid leaked out under the car like a running facet! When this happened last time, we had it fixed and it had not leaked since. At this point, we realized that we must get off the high way. Luckily, the next exit was only a few yard away. We topped more transmission fluid - yes, luckily the extra transmission fluids we bought when we had the problem before were still in the car. Off we went, carefully, of course. We got to a gas station right off the exit ramp. Within minutes, Bert got on the phone with a mechanist, towing company and a Herz rental car company all at the same time and I had American Express road side service ready to take care of us too. The final vertics was that we must stay over night here in this town called Stockbridge, GA. We could drive only a few blocks with this broken car. Luckily, there was a Holiday Inn Express and Suite just across the high way. Unfortunately, there was a long line in the Holiday Express checking in counter with only one girl working there and more than 2 dozen travelers waiting to check in. I see no chance to know if they could give me a room or not soon. Taking a business card from the counter, I walked right back into the car and called the hotel reservation in their parking lot. I reserved two rooms in less than 5 minutes. I then went back in to wait in line while Bert and kids started to organize the car. Less than an hour later, we settled in our hotel rooms. We logged online and reserved a rental minivan. Meanwhile, Bert managed to have the car towed to a nearby transmission repair shop. We will find out tomorrow if we could have this car repaired before noon or we will take the rental car to Orlando and pick our car on our way bakc. Yes, we are determined to go.
We have more evening time now. We ordered pizza and played Yoker with the boys. We lost to them left and right:), but it is one of these happy moment we enjoy the most.
Did you realize how many times I have been saying luckily? Yes, considering the situation, if we were broken down in far away from an exit, we would be in lot more trouble. Looking back, we are so thankful for the watchful eyes from God. Everything happened could have been worse. But in the end, we are having a Christmas we would not forget. We are prepared for more adventures to come, but no matter what comes in our way, we will try to remember how fortunately we are to have each other. Kids have been wonderful and Bert and I are not fighting:). What else more do we need?:)
Good night, or shall I say Good morning? We hope to get good news tomorrow!