Our Christmas plans took a bit of a turn this year. Our original plan was for Grandma and Grandpa Sindt to come to Minneapolis for the holiday. Then mother nature intervened.The weekend of December 18th, we packed up the van to head down to the farm to meet Tony, Lisa, and Max for an early Christmas. We were excited to share some holiday time with our new nephew/cousin. Tony and Lisa had arrived at the farm on Thursday night that week. We didn't get to spend whole lot of time with them since they left on Saturday, but we cherish any little bit of time we can get with them.
I had to get back to Minneapolis for work on Monday, so the plan was for me to take one of the Sindt cars back. Then the grandparents, Kim, Camden, and Ethan would come back home together for Christmas. Then the weather reports started to come in. There was a big snow and ice storm headed our way. The forecast promised that it would be around for quite a long time through the Christmas holiday. So we made the quick decision for me to return to the farm so that we could all be together for Christmas and not on the treacherous roadways.Turned out, that was the best decision we could've made. Had Grandpa Sindt tried to come back later in the week, it likely would've been too dangerous for him to do so. The weather was so bad on Christmas Eve that we didn't even make it to church service.
We got about 15" of snow on the farm and there were drifts at least 12' high. But if there was a place to be snowed in, a farm was the place to be. It was like one of the boys' books come to life. They loved watching "papa" roll out the tractors and move the mounds of snow. Camden even got a ride in the tractor.Kim and I took the opportunity to go out on a date one night. The weather seemed to have cleared up a bit so we took the 1 hour trip to Sioux City for a movie and dinner. We saw Avatar in 3D and then headed out to a Mongolian restaurant. The fun part was on the way home. The weather had turned, yet again, and conditions driving back weren't ideal. The wind was blowing pretty hard and it was snowing. We met the worst of it on the service road pulling into the farm. About a quarter mile before the farm, the snow had drifted up about 4 feet high preventing us from getting through.
Tried as we might to plow through, we were not successful. So we phoned home for help. Within minutes, we saw the bright headlights of the tractor coming to our rescue. Grandpa plowed us free and cleared a path for us to come home. Just not something I've ever experienced as a city boy before, but thankful that the necessary equipment and family members were available to help us out.All and all we had a wonderful Christmas. It was nice to have some extended time at home on the farm and the boys loved it too. We'll definitely remember the Christmas of 2009 as a white Christmas.
