On a frigid December day during school, the announcements beeped on, “Please excuse this interruption. Due to a snowstorm on its way, we will be let out of school two hours early.”
“Yes!” came the many excited shouts from my 4th hour class. I guessed that this was going to be an even whiter winter than I thought.
Hours later, the 8th period of the day finally arrived and everyone was chattering excitedly about the unexpected early out. When the bell finally rang, I bolted out of my Social Studies classroom. Once I got outside, I gawked at all the snow. It was almost two feet high.
It continued to be a snowy winter, and by the time we were let out for Winter Break, there was at least four feet of snow piled around our house, and was still coming, with more was predicted.
“Anna, come here. We need to talk about Christmas,” came my parents call from the other room.
“Okay, I’ll be there right away!” I replied. Once I was in the same room with my parents and comfortable, my mom began.
“There’s a lot of snow on its way and the roads might not be safe for us to drive for three hours. We might just have to spend our Christmas here this year.”
“What?!?!” came my disbelieving voice. “Can’t we still try to go on the roads?”
This time my dad responded, “No, it’s too dangerous. What if we get in a wreck or get stuck in the snow?”
I knew he had a point there. Throughout the whole discussion I thought about it. Even though what my dad said was a major obstacle, I still was convinced that we would get to go to my grandparents’ house for Christmas.
Later we talked to my grandma and grandpa and told them our decision.
“You’re probably right. The roads are pretty bad up here too,” they said reluctantly. This made me angry. How could they say that? After all, it was a tradition that we celebrate Christmas with the whole family! Why did the meteorologists have to predict an awful snowstorm coming right before Christmas?
After that night I dreaded the coming Christmas days. I wanted to be together with my full family! Why couldn’t they just take risks? But the days were slipping by; time was running out. December 21, December 22, December 23… still more snow predicted. It was hopeless. There was nothing I could do now. All too soon it was Christmas Eve, the 24th of December.
When I woke up that morning, I felt different than usual, and not the usual ‘day before Christmas’ different. It was a strange kind of different, a new different. In the back of my mind I knew it was because I would’ve been getting ready to go to my grandparents’ around this time. The more I thought about it, the more miserable I became. Although I went through the day acting like an excited kid just before Christmas, it didn’t feel Christmas-y at all without being at my grandparents’ farm, or at least in the car on our way to see them.
Instead, we made plans to go to my aunt’s house in town for Christmas Eve dinner. Once we got there, we settled down to eat. The conversation was definitely not as lively without my grandparents. After dinner, we called them. They sounded like they really wanted to be there, even though we all knew that wasn’t going to happen.
After the phone call, we kept checking outside, waiting for it to start snowing. Everyone didn’t want to feel guilty for not taking the risk. Believe it or not, all we got was a light dusting that night. Everyone was greatly disappointed, especially me. I knew they should have listened to me instead of those crazy meteorologists.
I headed for bed, and the next morning, Christmas morning, my relatives who live in town came over and we sat down to a delicious breakfast. There was hardly any snowfall that day. We could have made it there safely after all! That made me mad. We should’ve been able to go.
Later my family and I tried something else new – we set up Skype with our grandparents, and we scheduled a ‘make-up Christmas’ on New Year’s Eve! I was happy we’d still have a sort-of Christmas with them in just a week. The Christmas we ended up having ended up being a lot of fun too! It was a good replacement but not quite the same as the real thing. But we were happy to be together and I realized just how much our regular Christmas tradition means to me.
Anna R.
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