The Holidays

This past holiday season was significant in that it was Tara’s and my first together.  The experience was challenging, to say the least, but, overall, turned out well.  After much emotionally charged discussion, we came up with the following plan: 

We would fly into Omaha at 6:30 PM Christmas Eve and the rest of the evening and Christmas day in Papillion with my family.  Tara’s family was to arrive in Omaha Christmas evening for their big extended family Christmas to happen the next day.  Tara would go meet up with them while I spent time with my younger brother, who would be leaving for his band trip the next morning.  The next morning, we would do Christmas with Tara’s family at the hotel, and then the extended family stuff that afternoon.  The next day, Sunday, we would go to church with my family, and that evening, head down to Lincoln for a friends Christmas party at Isaac’s.  We would then spend the better part of the week at my parents’ house and then go up to Yankton to Tara’s parents’ house on New Year’s Day after spending New Year’s Eve with friends.  The following Monday, we would fly back to Salt Lake.

Complicated enough?  Here’s what actually happened:

We arrived in Denver for a 4 hour layover on Christmas Eve.  Meanwhile, the weather in Omaha was steadily degrading as one of the worst winter storms in history started its work.  We sat in the airport with fingers crossed waiting to see if we’d make it to Omaha that night.  The flight ended up being delayed an hour and a half, but we did manage to fly to Omaha and land safely in the middle of the blizzard.  We then rode a taxi from the airport to Papillion (my parents did not want to come out in the storm, and I don’t blame them).  It was a crazy ride on very snowy roads, but we made it.  Thus Christmas with my family went down as planned. 

With Tara’s family, however, things were more complicated.  In anticipation of the storm, Tara’s mom had taken her sister from Yankton to Lincoln on Wednesday, before Christmas, so that she could be there for the band trip which was leaving at 8 in the morning Saturday.  She barely made it back to Yankton with the storm starting.  Thus, the family spent Christmas Day snowed in in Yankton with Becky in Lincoln and Tara with me in Papillion.  They did not make it down Christmas night, nor did they manage to make it down for the extended family stuff the next day.  Meanwhile, Becky hung out in Lincoln by herself all Saturday only to have the band trip completely cancelled on her.  And so Tara and I were the only representatives from the Somer family to show up at the big family Christmas.

Fortunately, Tara did get to Becky and her parents when they came down to retrieve Becky from Lincoln on Sunday, even though it was just for a short time.  We did make it to Lincoln just fine for the Christmas party, and because we arrived late, were greeted by a naked Nick and Robert who ran down to the car.  The neighbors also witnessed this display, and as a result, I doubt Isaac will be getting any Christmas cookies for a few years.  We decided to go up to Yankton a day earlier, on New Year’s Eve, and spent the night with “old people” aka Tara’s parents and their friends.  This turned out to be fun anyway, although the “party” ended around 11 and we watched to ball drop back home while complacently sipping champagne.

The Somer family Christmas finally went down successfully on New Year’s Day.  The storm is long since past leaving some 20 inches of snow in its wake that continues to blow onto the roads making shitty driving conditions. 

Although challenging and frustrating at times, everything worked out well in the end.  It was wonderful to see family and friends again.  Various people have asked me what holiday traditions we started.  I’m not sure we managed to start any!  Everything was too hectic!  In one of our marriage books, it recommended not trying to split one holiday between both families, and now I can definitely see why.  But you consider selflessness, compromise, and being there for each other during a stressful holiday, I suppose we started plenty of traditions.  I just hope that 20 inches of snow doesn’t become one of them!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!