Well let's see, we started out with a snow storm that shut down the entire area on Dec. 18th, we didn't get back up and running with power, heat, phones and water (is it ever nice to flush a toilet...it's the small things that you learn to appreciate ya know lol) until around 8 p.m. Tues. Dec. 22nd (first came on around 6 then on and off for a couple hours til they sorted things out).  Ok, great, the madness is ready to begin.

After 5 days without power, we lost everything in both fridge and deep freeze - this is NC not the north, so although there was lots of snow, the temperatures were not near cold enough to maintain a freezer full of food. 

At that stage, I still had not even finished decorating the tree as I had started stringing lights on the Thurs. before the storm, had my appt with Dr. Finkel and was out of town all day for that.  As I looked around, trying to decide what was going to take priority, of course, the first thing was to finish the shopping for the kids.  I had several gifts that I was waiting on that were being shipped - and during the outage, there was no mail service, waiting for the local crews to remove all the numerous trees that came down kept pretty much all services that required freight deliveries out of the area.  As the panic began to rise, I debated on re-purchasing some of the gifts, then decided to wait - as some of them had managed to get through on the Tues (Dec. 22nd). 

Dec. 23rd and 24th were spent wildly racing around trying to finish shopping and preparations, and get food in the house for the family to eat over the next few days.  Of course, Christmas dinner was destroyed, so the decision was made to find a place to go out to eat at.  iHop doesn't take reservations, and the whole other 3 restaurants that were open Christmas Day all required reservations well in advance and were $50 per person for the meal - talk about painful....

I completed everything I was going to get done by 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and returned to the house to start the wrapping madness.  With kids age 9, almost 16 and almost 18, and Clark, it was a daunting task to face every single gift that had not a stitch of wrapping on it.  It was also likely to be Ayden's last year of truly believing in the big fella in the sleigh.  So I went to a fair amount of work to bring some extra magic. 

A couple of friends arrived about 8:00 pm on the 24th, and we had a grand time visiting and relating tales of survival from the storm.  At 9:30, Ayden informed us he was wanting to go bed - we have a rule here, whatever time you go to bed is what time you can wake up the next morning - and Ayden was not planning on waiting any longer LOL.  So we turned off all the lights (not sure why, since we'd lived without them for so long, but it's a traditional thing...) and lit all the candles, and turned on all the Christmas lights - the only thing on my tree at the time;  then we all settled down to read Twas the Night Before Christmas - another tradition that has been done for my entire 41 years of life

We got Ayden settled, and of course he was a bit worried and upset about Christmas - he had some items on his list that I had told him simply could not happen, the money just wasn't available.  Things like a Nintendo DSi ($169.00) and a Razor Pocket Rocket (a mini bike worth $249.99) and the dog had chewed up one of his Bakugan - don't ask, they are annoying little toys worse than Pokeman - and he was sure that Santa would be able to replace it, if anyone could.  When the dog had ruined his Aquos Preyas Bakugan, I looked on the computer to find another, and Ayden told me I couldn't get another one, because it was discontinued - he was correct, that was one that was no longer produced.  There he lay, with a Darkus Preyas Bakugan on his pillow beside his head, a tear in his eye, and said maybe Santa will see my Preyas, and know how much I like them, and be able to get me one, if anyone can do it, Santa can.  Oy...

Of 10,688 Bakugan available for auction on EBay, there was ONE of the kind the dog ate.  Good thing Santa likes EBay....

Our friends left around midnight on Christmas Eve, and Clark and I set about the madness of trying to prepare everything for Christmas morning, that we normally would have been working on for a week, and found ourselves with only a few hours to complete.  Wrapping paper began to fly, and every few minutes I'd stop and put an ornament on the still undecorated tree.

When at 2 a.m. what to my wondering eyes should appear....but another !%$%@&*&%#@ power outage.  So we carried on trying to wrap every gift by candle light.  At 5 a.m. we finally finished the process, and climbed into bed, knowing we would get little to no sleep as Ayden would be up any minute.  45 min. later, the power came back on, and every light in the house was on, so I crawled out of bed and turned everything off, then got back to bed and Ayden thankfully was still asleep.  5 min. later, the power went out again, and this time the damn hard wired smoke alarm wouldn't shut up, so I got up and turned off the breaker.  Then the dog wanted out, and the cats were going nuts, and the power came back up on the street, so I turned the breaker back on and started filling jugs of water just in case.  Shortly after that, Ayden was up and had his stocking - the kids are allowed to get their stockings and have them, the idea being that they can get up and open some things that are wrapped in their stocking, and play with some things and maybe, just maybe, go back to sleep.  He had to show me something though...so Mom wasn't going to get any sleep at all...

There in his stocking, were hand warmers and toe warmers, and a set of 3 magnifying glasses;  the significance being that when he was at the kid's Christmas party and saw Santa, Santa KNEW he was in scouts, and a Webelos, and asked him what his favorite part of scouting was - Ayden answered camping - so handwarmers and magnifying glasses that start fires when camping - well Santa was truly on target this year!  "But wait, Mom you have to see this ..."  (Santa of course doesn't use the same wrapping paper that Mom and Dad uses, he uses paper that often has his image on it...) Ayden raced from his room and grabbed the photo of him on Santa's knee at the party, and showed me...all 3 of the different papers Santa uses, every single one of them, the Santa at the party looked just like the one on the wrapping paper!!!! (this truly was purely accidental and coincidental, it was not planned nor even considered....) "Mom....this is a little scary, I know you say you still believe in Santa, and that your Dad did too, even to the day he died, but my friends all say he's not real, and I wasn't sure....but now,  I KNOW that Santa's magic is real, and I really really believe!!!!" (photo to follow)

Well, the rest of the household arose, and we brewed coffee and made cinnamon buns, and proceeded with the gift opening - all that work, and it was all torn off in such short order.....ah well, that's what being the elf himself is about right?....right...

The magic was alive and well yesterday morning.  And for all the difficulties we faced trying to get ready for the day, it was all worth it, every bit of it, for those few short hours of magic in a child's eyes.  You see, Santa HAD been listening, and in his Santa gifts was a collection of items needed for scouts and camping, a book of how to tie knots, a maglite flashlight (can't imagine why anyone here would need a flashlight....) and a leatherman set with pocketknife and trail kit, AND Santa had been able to find that Bakugan!!!  No one else would be able to get that item, only Santa could do something like that!!  He'd seen with his own eyes that it wasn't available anymore, so he knew that ONLY Santa could do something that impossible!  Some other much wanted items were also there from Santa, and his Nana, Uncle and Sister had all pooled their money to get the most wanted item of all, a Nintendo DSi - I think I heard "This is the BEST CHRISTMAS EVER" about 20 times yesterday morning...kinda makes all the mess well worth it.

The two older kids were also a bit stunned with Santa's abilities...knowing that money is so tight this year, he was able to provide a couple of much desired items that they never thought of...things that they wanted and needed, but hadn't necessarily thought to ask for - Santa is good that way, he knows those kinds of things without you ever having to say a word   And Andrea noticed the Santa wrapping paper, and pulled me aside, wanting to see the picture of Ayden, she had been at the party....and she looked at me and said, "Mom, you did that on purpose right?" to which I was able to very truthfully reply - "No, that was not done on purpose, I didn't even look at the paper", there sat my almost 16 year old daughter, her eyes wide, and she said "Mom, I have goose bumps....I know you have always said you believe in the magic of Christmas, and in Santa, and I know the magic you mean is about family and how people come together....but this is just almost creepy..."  - I love when things unexplained can get them back to believing

Not quite finished with the festivities of Christmas morning, off goes the power again.  Ugh.  It stayed off until around between 5 and 6 p.m. Christmas Day.  Then was off and on again throughout the rest of the evening.  Christmas dinner ended up being a campfire roasted hotdog for Dad, a nap for Mom, the Waffle House with friends for Andrea, 2 cans of Monster drink that Santa brought for Alex, and Ayden had Ramen when the power came back up LOL.  We are going out today for a nice dinner as it is difficult to go out to a restaurant for a meal when you can't shower and get ready (remember no power here means no running water...)

All in all, the day turned out to be one of magic, love and happiness, despite the various obstacles we faced in the preparations.  The tree never did finish getting decorated, nor did the house, the cleaning never got done properly, but it was tidy and the kitchen and bathrooms were returned to a sanitary state, and while I have yet to restock groceries, we have enough to get us through for a few days, and even though money was very tight this year, Santa managed to help transition a little boy's uncertainty into true and absolute belief - of the kind that he can keep his entire life. 

So yes, the magic was alive and well here in the Lind household on Christmas day, and what should have really been a very stressful and nervous breakdown kind of event for me, turned out to be one of the best Christmas Day's this family has enjoyed in a very long time - no time limits, no place we HAVE to be, no one to rush us along, no schedule to keep, no meal to coordinate and time, no 'formalities' to keep, just a family that had endured some adversity and obstacles, and come closer together because of it, and then enjoyed a little touch of magic on a day that truly is magical for many many reasons

I hope everyone had just as much magic and joy to their day! (without all the obstacles!)

Cat