The Christmas Trek

Part One: Off We Go . . . Eventually

We were supposed to leave for Spokane on Saturday. If we had, there would likely have been a very different tale to tell (at least part one).

As always, I procrastinated doing the laundry, and so late Friday night I was rushing the last couple of loads through the wash when the power went out. And stayed out . . . until I finally gave up on the laundry and went to bed. Saturday morning I happily finished the laundry and packed up our suitcases. By that time it was well afternoon, and Sven and I discussed our options. We could either load up the car, run our last few errands, and make it out of town in time to drive to Spokane by midnight; or we could wait until the morning to leave, and drive fresh and in the light of day. We opted for option #2. I went out and ran our errands, and we went to bed ready to make our trip.

Sunday morning dawned and we started to load up the car. It was at this point that we came to a horrifying realization. There was no possible way to fit everything in the car without leaving the kids at home. We unpacked the suitcases, and repacked. We arranged and rearranged the car. Finally everything we absolutely needed to take was packed. It was two or so in the afternoon.

At this point I was not open to staying at home another night.

We loaded the kids in the car. Correction- we started to load the kids in the car. Olly's shoe was missing. We searched the house high and low. We looked everywhere possible, and a few places that weren't. Her shoe was gone. We looked for her shoe for about 2 hours. I was boggled and dismayed.

Eventually The Z-Monster confessed to stealing Olly's shoe and throwing it off the deck into the fruit trees. Sure enough- there it was, so finally we were on the road.