Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Have a Very Vampire Christmas

So. We were supposed to leave on Friday after the boys got out of school to take a leisurely 2 day drive down to Florida to spend the holidays with the in laws. I prepared like a good little business owner, leaving the whole of Friday to pack up, get everything in the car, do last minute wrapping and even remembered to actually post on the site that my shipping deadline before heading out of town was Friday at noon.

Thursday morning we got the word that Asheville was going to get hit with a foot of snow the next day. We laughed. Thursday afternoon I got an email from the hubs (who teaches at the high school) saying- "Hey. Remember all those hand made gifts you spent the last week finishing up for Henry's classroom teachers? And the candy you made for the other staff? And the goody bags you stuffed for all the kids for the holiday party tomorrow? Yeah. You had better get your booty down to school and hand it all out because they are getting us ready for a snow day tomorrow". I laughed again, albeit a little nervously this time, and went and delivered my packages. I had serious doubts that we would get more than 3 flakes of snow, but I didn't want to be stuck with eleventy pounds of peppermint bark. And I wanted to make sure Henry's teachers had the growlers of Pisgah IPA in their hot little hands before they got out for break. Lord knows if anyone deserves a beer the first night of holiday break... it's them. I ran around like a crazy person stuffing little bags into teacher mailboxes and candy canes and Gopher Turtle books (don't ask) into kiddie cubbies. On my way through the library on the way out the librarian grabbed me and gave me an amazing Christmas present. Her husband is a potter and had a few pieces up in the media center for perusing. She saw me eying a gorgeous batter bowl that I couldn't afford to buy and she gave it to me! I couldn't believe it, I was beyond touched.

Anyhoo.

We woke up Friday morning to a snow day with no snow. Just as I expected. We decided we would leave town at noon, as soon as my shipping deadline passed and I set about trying to get my last orders packed up and Henry and I packed and ready to go. Around 7:30 it started snowing. Kyle and Henry got jackets out and went out to play. By 8:00 there was almost an inch on the ground. Kyle busted into the studio and informed me that we had to get out of Dodge NOW, before we got snowed in. I think I heard "The window is cloooooosing" a dozen times before I had the chance to throw a bunch of stuff in the car, slap shipping labels on the last of my packages and jump in the car. It was 9:00. We couldn't get to the post office. The Rabbit couldn't make it up the hill and we had to turn around and go down and around to get our of our neighborhood. We slid off the mountain and into SC safely, passing tons of cars in ditches and stopped on the side of the road and made it into the rain, which lasted well into GA. Keeping up with the #avlsnow and #snomg feeds on Twitter and my Facebook page I learned that we got out just in time. During our 13 hour drive Asheville got 15 inches of snow and most of our friends were without power all weekend. We drove into the ferry landing about 20 minutes before the last ferry left the mainland and made it to the island house just before 11pm. *yawn*

Today promises to be our first day of beach weather since we arrived and we have a date to go clamming with our friend Eddie round about noon. Tonight is bluegrass and fish and chips in El Jobean and then the holiday festivities begin!

Henry ate a bunch of strawberries before this picture was taken but he wants me to tell you "...it could be blood. Say "Have a Very Vampire Christmas".





To those of you who have already started your Winter Holiday celebrations, I hope your homes are warm and cozy and your family is near and dear and healthy.

To those of you still doing last minute shopping and waiting for The Fat Man to arrive on Friday morning...

Everyone at Crankypants World HQ is wishing you a Very Vampire Christmas!

3 comments:

anniebel said...

Great pictues!! Miss you!

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