Our adventures started back on the 23rd. We had hoped to begin our journey after work and make it up to the Taylor’s late that night. As luck would have it, a bad ice storm moved through Indy that afternoon and canceled any hopes of getting out of town. Most of the interstates were shut down and our ice covered driveway prevented us from getting our vehicles into the garage. In fact, I was able to parallel park my truck by simply giving it some gas and sliding sideways into the curb.
(side note: Now as we are driving back home, and I am taking the opportunity to type as I stare out the window, we just passed two hunters that were attempting to hunt alongside the highway. Now they were on the other side of the fence, but luckily they were both walking very slow, as not to alert the animals that were near-by. Thank heavens, as I would hate for them to be louder than a passing semi and scare away whatever animal they are looking for that is resting in its quiet roadside retreat. I know along I-69 is the first place I would go to hunt.)
Later that night the rain and warmer weather came in, the ice turned to slush, and we packed up so we could headed out first thing the next morning. We arrived on Christmas Eve and quickly got settled in. That night we attempted to go look at Christmas lights in the neighborhoods, but it seemed like not as many people braved the cold to put them up this year. Of course it was all tough to see everything when you cram 8 people into a 7-passenger vehicle.
Christmas morning brought the organized Taylor Chaos. The activities started promptly at 7:30, and concluded sometime after 11:30. Now even though everyone is by law an adult, that doesn’t prevent Sara and her sister from observing their annual Christmas rituals. Like not going or looking downstairs until told, and then holding hands while they walk down the stairs. This plan presents some problems with the current floor plan however, as you can clearly see the Christmas tree from Megan’s room. This prevents Megan from coming into our room before the two join forces and head downstairs. So at 7:29 Sara received a call on her cellphone. Yep, it was Megan, calling from her room next door and wondering when they should go down. After some excited Christmas chatter, she does what most anyone in her position would do; She calls the house phone, from her cellphone in her room, to tell her parents they are ready to come downstairs to open presents. I just opened the door and said “Yep, they are down there. Lets go.”. Apparently I just didn’t understand.
Here are some pictures showing the chaos before, during, and after. (Note: There were 8 people there, I just couldn't get everything in the frame)
The day after Christmas, us boys were set to head north to Michigan to get everything ready to go snowmobiling. Just one problem. Another ice storm was passing through about 45 mins north at the state line. So instead of our 8:00 am departure time, we hung around until noon before deciding to head out. This provided us the opportunity to miss driving through the actual storm and instead sit in a traffic jam, make a scenic detour, and lose over an hour of our lives. At least once we got out of that mess and into Michigan we only had to deal with driving conditions that would rival any standard NASCAR race. If its one thing I love, its driving white knuckled at 80 mph, bumper to bumper, for 3 hours. (insert sarcasm here)
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