My husband is Mr. Logistic.  He is very good at planning and organizing trips and he loves to do it. This Christmas adventure that we are on was one of his best efforts.  Until the weather hit.  Enter chaos.

We had planned to leave Iowa and spend the night before our early flight near the airport in Minneapolis in order to be there in the wee hours.

Enter the blizzard.  Interstate 35 closed.  White out conditions.  It is never good when the state you live in has gates on the interstates to shut them down. We left at 2:30 am and could not get out.  Chris got us on a little later flight.  We checked at 5 am and the interstate was still closed.  The wind had died down so we decided to try a back way .  I was white knuckling it while he drove but once we made it out of Iowa the roads were better and about half way there we were sailing along on clear roads.  Crisis averted though we arrived in Pittsburgh a little later and a little tired.

Family time with my side was wonderful.  We were all there with the exception of one (my niece’s husband could not get it all worked out with work) but we had a great time. 

Then it was off to Ada to celebrate with Chris’s side.  Another delightful experience and great time!!! Yummy food by Colleen and great company!

Always vigilant Chris is keeping his eye on the weather and lo and behold—a huge winter storm is coming our way.  We decided to leave Ada a night early and head to Columbus where we were to fly out later the next day.  We got a hotel right next to the airport and spent the night.  Great decision as the storm came in.  In the morning our hotel window started to look like this. Ice, freezing rain and sleet.

Then the snow came.  And came.  And came.  Micah’s flight got delayed. Then canceled.  He got rebooked for the next morning to go back to Jacksonville.  Our flight to Raleigh was still on.  We waited.  It got delayed.  But it was still going.  Chris and Aaron and I headed to the airport—Raleigh bound.   A half hour before it was to take off they cancelled it.  Sigh.  Aaron has a wedding he is in and has to be back for on Friday and our next chance to get out to Raleigh was Friday morning. Aaron found a flight to Charlotte on Wednesday night and a friend who would take him from Charlotte to Raleigh so he booked it and hopefully it will work out.  Chris and I are giving up and going home.  It was not meant to be.

Sometimes the best laid plans go by the wayside when Mother Nature is involved.  We are safe and warm in a hotel and have all the things we need but it is still disappointing when it was all planned out so nicely.  I really wanted to spend time with Aaron and see my BFF and go to church at my old church but it is not to be this time.  So instead we will go home early and work on house projects.  Maybe a better use of our time but not nearly as fun.

As I was writing this Aaron texted me that he thinks his flight is canceled.  Wonderful.  Maybe a good thing we did not cancel the rebooked one we did for him on Friday morning. That may be as good as it gets.  (Later on Aaron decides to rent a car and drive back home.  We are still just going home.  Aaron will drive and hopefully be back in plenty of time for the wedding rehearsal on Friday.  He definitely added the stress points up today.)

Have you ever had big plans get changed and how do you react to it?  Do you embrace it or grumble?