We survived it! Between treacherously slick streets, semis looking to run us over, broken tire chains, a flat tire from someone else's broken chains, and horrid weather it's a wonder we're still here. Since we couldn't make it over to see Forrest's mom because of the snow here, there, and in the mountain passes we made a last minute decision to join my family in Portland on Christmas Day. By the afternoon of the 25th it was supposed to be warm and rainy. So we ventured out of our neighborhood in a thick snowstorm Christmas morning. Our 15 minute drive to the freeway took an hour. Then we had fairly smooth sailing till we reached Kelso where it started snowing again. By the time we reached Battle Ground huge flakes the size of silver dollars were swirling around us and sticking to the freeway. The final 30 miles of our trip took nearly two hours. Cars and trucks were spinning out all around us. I don't know how we avoided getting hit.
Thankfully once we reached my parent's house in Portland we could enjoy quality family time with cousins, grandparents, and my sibs and their spouses. After two weeks of snow the kids were all tired of it and none of them went outside to play. Wonderful food was eaten, movies were watched, English crackers were popped, and a very competitive game of Scrabble was played (Alyssa and I teamed up and were victorious).
On Friday we did some post Christmas bargain hunting capped off by a yummy German feast at Gustav's. Per Noah's request we had breakfast Saturday morning at la petit Provence before we headed for home.
This week is chore time. The carpets are being professionally cleaned which required us all to sort through some junk for a final trip to Goodwill. I'm going to clean and reorganize the laundry room. Our puppy, Cowboy, is getting neutered this week. And I just might get the photo albums all up to date. Our neighbors are coming for dinner New Year's Eve. The snow is finally melting although I'm still not sure that our garbage will get picked up today. Our road is still very icy. So now you're all caught up with the Jones family. Alyssa is sitting beside me as I write doing homework for her AP US History class. Her teacher emailed the assignments out to his students.