We spent yesterday in Abby’s hometown of Ryan, Oklahoma, where we had fun with her family.

Forecasts indicated the winter storm would stay north of us and our route home. But as we went to bed last night in Ryan, I got a blizzard alert text message on my phone.

When we got up, snow was falling hard and blowing, so we skipped lunch and headed home. There were many vehicles on our route that had slid off the road and were stranded, including one semi that had jackknifed and blocked the road, which delayed us about 15 minutes while a wrecker towed it back onto the road. In the middle part of the drive, it thinned out to just rain, but then back home, it was snow and sleet again, blowing at gusts up to 40mph.

The drive normally takes two hours, but this time we made it in about four and a half.

The rest of the evening was great despite the stressful drive home. We had late lunch with Dorothy and her family on the other end of the pasture. We had Christmas, in accordance with Abby’s tradition of opening presents on Christmas eve. And now we are hunkered down.