one eventful christmas

well, christmas 2011 is definitely one that will go down in the record books. here's our storyline:

it started out by both of us having to work friday (christmas eve eve) until 2.  

we then went home and played games with my mom and brother.

and drank some of mom's homemade baileys. yum!

 then, early christmas eve morning, we set off on our full day adventure. our plan: head to wausau (2.5 hour drive) to see a bunch of al's family, leave there by 3 or 4 and head back to the cities to my dad's side christmas all night, then spend christmas day with my mom and brother and our pj's, then monday was a free, relaxing day. that was the plan...

christmas eve morning: it was a beautiful day for driving. not a cloud in the sky, sun shining and as we got further and further into wisconsin, we got to see a white christmas!! our trip even included my christmas turban :) or as al called me, a christmas pirate.

 the landscape was beautiful! i love when the trees have a covering of white on them! hubby drove the whole way!

 we got to al's dad's house. had christmas with him and al's sister, althea. then headed out to al's grandpa's house to see him. it was great to see him even if he does speak at a very high decibal. :) he was excited to see both al and i and it made me realize we need to get out to see him more often.

one of my goals for this holiday season was to take more pictures of people. i sort of failed at that, but i did get a picture of al with his dad and his grandpa! even if the sun light is overbearing, it's still a great picture!!

 from there we headed out to al's aunt wendy's house where the big oleson/wilcox christmas was to be held. it was supposed to start at 3 (the time we were going to have to leave) but when we showed up a lot of people we thought we weren't going to get to see were there. we stayed until just before four and then hit the road back up to the cities. here is where the story gets interesting.

about a half hour out of wausau is a town called abbotsford. we had planned to stop there to get gas and get some caffiene for the drive. just before we hit abbotsford, the jeep started beeping and the check gauges light started blinking. shortly after we had concluded that it was most likely the alternator had died.

we called al's dad, a mechanic, and he confirmed our hunch that it was probably the alternator and suggested we head back to wausau if the battery was still going. we drove slightly past the gas station and saw a plethora of auto parts stores and service stations. all closed... so we turned around to head back and as we got closer to the highway things started turning off: the radio, the headlights (it was just about dark out), etc. we weren't going to make it far. we quickly turned around again and headed back to the gas station. we made it there barely. we called around to find an alternator but no where was open. al's dad and cousin had to come get us and i had to face the fact that i wasn't going to make it home for christmas; not for dad's side and maybe not for mom's christmas either. the likelihood that something was going to be open the next day, a sunday and christmas day was not good.

once we got picked up and got back to wendy's house, al's cousin jeremy said we could use his car to drive home. but it was late and we were both exhausted so we stayed the night in wausau and would head back in the morning.

we were still hanging out at wendy's, when al got his tell-tale sign of a migraine. so we booked it to his dad's house, got the beds ready and went to sleep. he was up at least 3 times puking that night, so neither of us got a lot of sleep....

despite all that and missing the family on my dad's side that we don't see often, we had a beautiful, easy, made-great-time drive home on christmas morning. we got to open presents, play lots of games and have mimosas! santa even got us all matching pajama pants. :]

despite all the set-backs it was a pretty good christmas. and i got to spend all our first married-couple christmas with my hubby! our relaxing monday turned into al driving to pick up an alternator, driving to wausau to get his dad and tools, driving to abbotsford, fixing the jeep, then driving home, and me cleaning, running errands and doing laundry. but i did make it over to see my papa, dad and aunt cindy so that's good. and here's a picture of my papa! :)

after wondering if i was going to make it home at all, spending christmas day with my mom, al and tyler was more than enough of a gift for me! but i did get some really good gifts as did al, the jeep is almost all the way fixed (the battery just needs re-charging), and we are home healthy and happy and... ready for work this week. :( yes, we both have to work all 4 days this week. i'm completely jealous of people who have the whole week off... ah, to be in the accounting field at year end...

despite all the unplanned events, we are so lucky to have so many loving, caring family and friends!