For Brian and me, our best Christmas present this year was getting home safely.
We headed up to upstate NY to spend Christmas Eve with Brian's family. This was the first ever Christmas that I didn't spend with my family. It was a bit hard for me, and I did water up a few good times on Christmas Day (and maybe even before) at the thought of my family gathering without me. We were happy to spend Christmas with Brian's family; I just wish we lived closer to both of our families so that we can easily see everyone. That can't happen for us.
After spending Christmas Eve with Brian's parents and his sister's family, we said goodbye to Brian's parents on Christmas Day, who were boarding a plane for their wintertime abode in Arizona. We had planned to visit with Brian's grandmother and stay the night at her place, but a change in thinking caused us to alter our plans.
Brian's car is becoming more of a heap of parts than a vehicle made for safe driving, and while driving up to NY we nearly overheated. The day after Christmas, we were due for a snow storm to begin in the afternoon, and while we may have had time to leave Wednesday morning and get home, we didn't want to risk it. Last October, we we were hit with an unexpected snow storm while traveling back from my dad's surgery in NJ, and we were stuck on the side of the road with a dead battery, waiting to be rescued, in the cold. I think we both had that experience in mind and wanted to avoid that scenario as much as possible. To add to the frustration, the heat in Brian's car no longer works, and we didn't want to drive home in a snow storm without heat.
It was a hard decision, especially where Brian's grandmother was concerned, but we decided to head home on Christmas Day. We were nervous, because this meant we really had to watch the needle, and if it strayed too close to the "H", we needed to pour more antifreeze into the chamber. Not long into our trip, we needed to do just that. While dangerously close to the "H", we prayed an exit would come quickly on the highway, and lo and behold, there it was. It was a gas station/convenience store, and it turned out to be just perfect. Brian went inside to retrieve a cup for pouring the fluid, and I went to purchase a gallon of water to mix with the coolant. I also stood on a long line for two hot teas, which were sorely needed in our cold car. And you wouldn't believe the line for Subway. I kept wondering to myself why these poor people were eating Subway on Christmas? Then again, there we were, in this convenience store ourselves, a couple of weary travelers trying to get safely home. We weren't much better.
We got on the road again, and the coolant seemed to do the trick, at least for a while. We had to pull over one more time as we approached home. Brian and I were becoming experts at the routine by this time. I clapped when we pulled onto our exit, and I clapped again when we pulled into our driveway. Though it was a weird Christmas, and to be honest, didn't seem like Christmas at all, we were glad to be home, safe and sound. When thinking of what could have happened, that really was the best gift we got this year.
Next year we will have Baby, and hopefully we will have replaced Brian's car long before then. We'll need to be extra careful about how we plan trips with our little one. Of course, the day will come, I believe, when we'll want Christmas in our own home, without traveling at all. I want my kids to enjoy Christmas as I once did, waking up in their own beds each year. And I certainly don't want Christmas spent in the car, stopping to pour antifreeze into the ever-leaking chamber! Brian and I both hope this event will not be repeated.
