...to stay or to leave

...making choices is so hard.

We are still here in upstate New York over the Christmas season.  Alone.

Stuck.  For many different reasons.

Ice First.  Illness and Snow second.  Unexpected snow and traffic issues were the final straw.

Then I gave up.  Going home for holidays was not what we were meant to do this holiday season.  I am not gonna lie, I have and do feel sorry for the kids for myself.  This was not our plan.

Our families are in Michigan.  Our Fort Drum friends are traveling.  And Mark is in Afghanistan.  And here were are in New York alone.  We weren't supposed to be here.

We enjoyed being Face Time guests at the Christmas parties we were supposed to attend.  The phone calls and texts we received were comforting.  The parties seemed festive and...the pictures were fun to see.

But we were supposed to have been part of all of that.  In person.

Sometimes, the stars don't align the way we think they are supposed to.

And other times we have to embrace the situation we are put in.

I am making the tough choice to embrace the quiet time the five of us have been given.  We'll watch movies, bake cookies and play in the snow.  I'll take the time to play video games with the big kids, color with the little girls, and perhaps we'll play board games as a family.

Sounds delightful.

I'll let you know how my Norman Rockwell vision of our 15 days of stranded-in-the-snow-togetherness-time goes.