Christmas 2008!

The day we arrived in Williston it was -50 degrees with the windchill. Phil called me to tell me that a plane had caught fire in Denver on the runway and he wan't going to make it home that day> The only plane accident on a us airline in 2008, and of course it happened on the runway of the airport Phil was in while I was trying to move myself and 5 kids by myself. The roads were so bad we didn't arrive at our new house until 8 p.m.

I got the car unloaded and the kids back in the car by 8:45 pm at headed to Mcdonalds, we grabbed a hamburger at the drive through and headed to Walmart. I had forgotten the time change so of course it is really 9:45. So with 5 kids, and two shopping carts we bought, all the food, air matresses, and cheapo kitchen ware we would have to have to survive. Since the next Day was the Sabbath it had to be done then. Brooklyn crawled under one of the carts and fell asleep the other kids and myself were almost in tears by the time we got done. I left my wallet in the car sat with the kids on a bench by the cashier while she rang my stuff up and I ran out to get my wallet and move the car by the front door. People just leave their cars running while they go shopping, weird but when my car barley started and was freezing cold I figured out why.

We were finally done and when I pushed the carts outside, my younger kids started screaming because the snow was blowing around and it felt like little pices of glass when it hit you in the face, the carts were getting stuck in the snow in the parking lot and we couldn't get them to move. I scooped up my babies and got them in the protection of the car....meanwhile Brooklyn is still conked out at the bottom of the cart oblivious. I had literally draged her from the cart and into the car, she never budged. I then had to load the two overflowing carts into my car alone because no way was I letting those kids out in that again. With that ordeal out of the way we headed home.

Everyone got into the house as fast as possible, we had managed to rouse brooklyn enough for her to walk inside, everyone got there jammies on and there teeth brushed while I blew up air mattresses and found the sheets to make the beds. Finally everyone was in bed, and I got to go back outside and bring everything in. Happy Happy Joy Joy! I put away everything perishable, blew up and made my bed, and stumbled into bed at 2:30 a.m. A blessed unconciousness!!

The next morning I woke up at 8:40 am and it was pitch dark outside...apparently since we are so far north the sun doesn't come out until 9:00 a.m. WEIRD! Church starts in an hour and 20 minutes, everyone is dead asleep and our clothes are buried in a pile of chaos on the front room floor. So at 10:00 am we piled in the car leaving behind clothes strung from one end of the house to another breakfast on the kitchen floor ( no table) and all of us trying to look we had showered, the night before. ( you can't go outside with wet hair here because your hair will freeze and it can break off...seriously break off!)

We got there 15 minutes late, and with less than 100 people in the room they noticed us arrive. Just in case they didn't notice us, Talli turned off the lights during the Christmas Program. Seriously! The people opened their arms to us, and were thrilled to have us there...so I am glad we went though everything we did to get there.

Phil arrived late that night, and had the time off for Christmas so we just spent time together as a family. By Monday someone one in the ward had brought us a Christmas tree and lights, a table and a couple chairs, and a arm chair for the front room. Someone else had left us money, which we used to outfit the kids with snow pants and such for this weather, and a microwave. It was such a blessing.