...to be home for Christmas.

...but (sigh) we aren't.

The weather all the way from Michigan to here in New York is terrible.  Rain, ice, freezing rain.  The temperatures are hovering at 32 degrees.

I wanted to go.  I wanted to get there for our annual family gathering (that we haven't been able to attend in years).  But I made the right decision.

At the very least, the drive would have been awful.

My poor, poor kids.

Not only did they think they were traveling home this morning to begin their two-week pahr-tay and gift-a-palooza however, I surprised them with a trip to...<gulp> school.

Promptly...three hours later they were sent home due to the terrible weather we were having.  Thus, confirming my decision for us to stay put here in New York.

Frankly, the afternoon turned out to be delightful.  Movies, video games, coloring, and reading stories by the fire.

In the late afternoon I remembered I had left my van outside in the drive and decided to go out and move it into the garage.

I couldn't.

Look closely at the picture: 

Notice my van at the end of the drive?  Notice how it is extremely crooked in the driveway?  Yup.  It's stuck there.  There's about an inch of ice on our drive.  That baby isn't moving.

So...instead of being upset about the situation I went and got the kids...

and we went skating in  the driveway.

So...

Much...

Fun...

The forecast isn't looking too great for us to travel for another two days or so, and while the kids are very sad about that, their next question was, "Well, can we slip and slide in our driveway again in the morning then?"