The Tulsa Christmas Eve Blizzard of 2009

Every morning when I get up for work, I take a look at the morning weather forecast. I ride the bus, and the walk to the bus stop is about a half-mile or so, so obviously the weather is going to make a big impact on me. Generally when they show the long-term forecast I don't bother to look too closely; in Tulsa the weather is pretty unpredictable, and those forecasts are going to change before those days get here. But about a week ago I started looking at the last day in the 7-day forecast. What was it going to be like on Christmas Eve?

The first day the 24th appeared at the end of the list, I got so excited: "Flurries Possible!" A little bit of snow for Christmas? Could it possibly be true? In Tulsa it rarely snows at all before January, and usually the end of January (although we did have a freak snowstorm last March).

Remember what I said about the forecasts changing before the day gets here? Well, we had WAY more than "flurries". On Christmas Eve it rained a slow rain for most of the morning, then it sleeted for a couple of hours, then it snowed, and snowed, and showed! It was windy, too... I think I saw on the news one time that we had 35mph sustained winds and 50mph gusts (which is what made it possibly a "blizzard" and not just a "snowstorm"). Apparently it was only the third time in history that the National Weather Service has issued a blizzard warning for us.

Needless to say, it was a great night to stay home and open some presents! Christmas Eve services were canceled at our church (and even at the church we just switched from... most churches in town canceled because of driving visibility problems) so we hung out at home, opened presents to each other, and got all ready for Santa. In this picture you can see a remarkable number of our presents... when I snapped it I didn't realize that virtually everything we gave to each other was in the frame! :) Everybody got good stuff; nobody came away disappointed. The kids went to bed and got safely to sleep before Santa showed... but boy, did he show up in a big way!

Mikey woke us up early and discovered that Santa had left a Nintendo Wii for him! We had a blast later exchanging friend codes with Mikey's cousins Elizabeth and Eden and racing Mario Karts with them over the Internet, us in Tulsa and them just outside of Fort Worth. Hannah slept in a little later, but when she got up she found that she had gotten a 2-year-old-sized kitchen playset, complete with oven, microwave, fridge, and even a cell phone and a (sticker of a) CD player! She also got a little Disney Princess folding table and chairs, just the right size for her and a teddy-bear friend. I spent some quality time in the driveway with my snow shovel; you can see some of the pictures at the top of this post (and some more via the link at the end of the post). There was about an inch layer of sleet on the bottom, and then probably 6-7 inches of snow on top of that (more in places where it had blown into drifts). I've had enough experience to know that if I let it go for a day or two without clearing it, it would likely melt and re-freeze, and that makes it twice as hard to clear, so I wanted to do as much to get it out of there as possible the first day!

We had planned to have lunch out with my mom and dad on Christmas, and then go to visit Cathy's brother's house later on for dinner, opening presents in both places. Well, the weather was OK for driving (carefully), but for some reason it hadn't occurred to us that nothing would be open on Christmas day! Mom and Cathy both called around, looking for restaurants. I was using Google Maps to just try to remember what restaurants were close by so we could call them, and Cathy told me "Type in 'restaurants in Tulsa that are open on Christmas.'" I was like, you have GOT to be kidding me... but I did it anyway. The first hit on Google was a 5-year-old Tulsa World article talking about Tally's Cafe being open on Christmas. I've driven past Tally's (at 11th & Yale) any number of times, but never had any reason to eat there. Cathy called, they were open, so now I had a reason! Mom and Dad said they would meet us there.

The roads were still a little icy; not difficult to maneuver as long as you kept it down to, say, 30mph or so, but I figured the highway would be a little clearer, so I hit the on-ramp. The highway was at LEAST as icy as the city streets! I doubt I saved myself any time at all! But we did get there safely... and I tried to park, and got stuck! A couple of guys came out right away to help me get out, and I think one of them was Tally himself! :)

Tally's is kind of a 50's diner kind of place. The ambiance is wonderful, the food is plentiful and quite tasty, and the waitstaff is attentive and friendly. We all saved enough of our meal to eat half for lunch the next day! (At Tally's they have a huge stack of to-go boxes right next to the cash register, if that's any indication.) I think we'll be going back... even on days when it's not the only restaurant open in town!

We decided to go over to Mom and Dad's and open presents, despite the fact that it had gotten dark and I really didn't want to ice-drive in the dark. Mikey went with Mom and Dad, and Cathy and Hannah and I loaded up in our car. I had parked in a church parking lot behind Tally's which appeared to have been sanded or cleared somehow, because there were some clear parking spaces where I knew I would be able to get traction enough to pick up speed and get out of the slushy parking area... but someone had already gotten stuck in the exit I had planned to use, so I couldn't get out! I looked around for another way out, and spotted my exit behind the car. It wasn't going to be easy, but it was going to have to do.

I got the car turned around without taking the wheels off the de-iced cement and looked over where I needed to go. As straight a spot as I could find was what I was looking for, so my front-wheel-drive Pontiac Vibe could use its own momentum to carry it over any slushy spots. I put my foot on the accelerator, pointed the wheels at the exit, and hoped for the best!

The ride was REALLY bumpy. There were ruts in the ice from previous vehicles, and the place that I thought was an exit turned out to have a curb hidden under the snow... WHAM! But we got out without getting stuck. And Hannah was LAUGHING the whole time! She LOVED it! As I was driving down 11th Street toward my parents' house, she was still saying "Do again! Do again!!" (in about eight or nine years or so, she's going to be Mama's buddy on all of those Tulsa State Fair rides I won't go on!)

We opened presents at Mom & Dad's and they opened ours, and I managed to get us all home without sliding into anything. Unfortunately, I had to call my grandpa in Shreveport, Louisiana and tell him that we didn't feel confident that the roads were sufficiently safe to make the trip down to see him the next day. He told me that he was glad to not have to hear the news that I slid off the road backwards on the ice in my car trying to get down to his house. :) They only got flurries down there, and I don't even know that it stuck at all. Hopefully we can make it down there as soon as the snow melts.

So Saturday we got up with very little planned. Mikey and Hannah were having fun with their new stuff; Hannah cleaned up her toy kitchen while Mama cleaned up the real kitchen to get some yummy pancakes made for breakfast. In some parts of the world, the 26th of December is a holiday called Boxing Day (traditionally a day for giving to the poor), but Cathy and Mikey made sure it was Boxing Day by beating the snot out of Mii boxers in Wii Sports. :) Later Hannah and Mikey and I went out in the back yard and let Hannah have her first chance to play with real snow, and I pounded Mikey with snowballs! (Actually, he got in a good lick or two, too!) Then Hannah went in for her nap and Mikey and I went down the street to a place where Mikey could do some hill-sledding with a plastic sled we picked up a few years ago. We had a great time sledding! And for a dad, I think we had just as great of a time walking a few blocks down to the hill, just me and Mikey. Those times are opportunities that come too few and far between in these busy times. You can't buy that kind of time with your kids. If you have children, seek out times to be alone with them every once in a while. I figure that if I don't, once they're grown and gone, I'll wish I had. Something comes to me quite frequently as my kids are growing up: THIS time for them is exactly like the 70s or 80s were for me. One day they will be the age I am now, and today will be a time from their childhood, just like days from 1979 or 1972 are to me. What I do today is part of the childhood memories of someone in the future. I want to make the stories they remember and tell their own children happy ones!

After that things became more mundane... I worked a little more on the driveway (which I had failed to make it all the way up the night before), then I went to Wal-Mart for a few supplies and to check out road conditions (not perfect, but better... we're going to attempt the trip to church in the morning), then I came home and we made our annual day-after-Christmas birthday cake for Jesus. The day after Christmas can seem like a big bummer sometimes, so a few years ago we decided to treat what normally is a quiet, uneventful day as our Santa-free, gift-opening-free day to think about Jesus and bake a homemade cake. Kind of gives you something fun to look forward to, instead of full-speed-ahead Christmas and then it's over so suddenly that the airbags deploy! We played some more Wii and did our thing (Mikey and I are becoming fairly accomplished Wii Tennis players, but I'm still pretty dismal at Mario Kart Wii... Mikey took to it like a duck to water the first time he played it, though, and he almost always wins first place in the races!) Now the kids are in bed, and it took so long to write this post that Cathy's in bed, too! If you want to see pictures of the snow, Mikey sledding, etc. check them all out here. If you want to swap friend codes and race Karts sometime, shoot me an email and we'll set something up! I'll warn you, though... Mikey will kick your hiney. Just sayin'.

Merry Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas from the Jones family!

Christmas is Blown Up!

Today was the last Sunday before Christmas.

Cathy dressed Hannah up real cute in a new Christmas dress (at right), and Mikey got all dressed up in a new red sweater. In the picture, Hannah is standing next to a little ceramic nativity set; Hannah really likes to hold the Baby Jesus. On the table you can also see the picture of Hannah and Mikey that we took at The Christmas Train a few weeks ago. Cathy and I dressed up pretty casual, because we were volunteering in the nursery at The Bridge for the first time. We were in the preschool class, and we had a great time telling the story of Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem and having Jesus in a stable to the kneebiters. :)

Tonight we did something a little different... we went out to The Castle at Muskogee for The Christmas Kingdom. The short version of the story is that for the cost of the short trip down to Muskogee (admission is free), you can drive through a field filled with over a thousand Christmas inflatables (the blowup Santas your neighbor has all over his yard). They have Santa Clauses, snowmen, snow globes, and then more exotic stuff like a whole choir of inflatable reindeer and an inflatable outhouse (!). Some of the inflatables are positively HUGE... check out this puppy, who is in front of a full-sized two-story building:



If you've been out to The Castle for the Renaissance Faire, you might recognize the building! According to the Web site, the largest inflatables are 20 feet tall!

At the end of the drive through, you can stop and visit the inside of the castle itself and get some hot chocolate. There is also a petting zoo, where Hannah made a new friend:



There are a few more pictures that we took here.

Hannah's Second Birthday

Last Wednesday, Hannah turned 2 years old! We met up with a few friends at Incredible Pizza for a birthday party the Saturday before, and everyone of course had a blast. If you have a little one and you haven't been in since they revamped the play area in the back corner, you need to go. There's a whole bouncy inflatable area for them to play in, plus a bunch of rides and stuff for them to enjoy:

    

When Wednesday came, we broke out some chocolate cakes with pudding inside (Cathy called them "lava cakes"), and sang happy birthday again (for the whole day people were telling Hannah "Happy Birthday", and she would say back to them "Ha bir-day, to yoo!" and then give 'em a kiss. :)

My mom and dad came over late (they had been at a meeting) and spend a little time with her too. I think Hannah REALLY had a blast! Here's a link to the pictures from the party, plus a few more from her birthday evening. I'll leave you with these images of the proper way to enjoy a chocolate lava cake when you're 2 years old:

 

Christmas Train 2009

Last night we engaged in one of our treasured family traditions: we spent the evening out at Dry Gulch, U.S.A. at The Christmas Train! The Christmas Train is quite an experience... Dry Gulch is a little faux western town (cowboy stuff) and at Christmas they outline all of the buildings with lights (beautiful!) and have Santa and the whole nine yards. They also have a real steam train that looks like one from an old west town, and you can ride it and hear the story of the birth of Jesus. It's SO much fun, and we've done it every year with Mikey (except for a few years when the Christmas Train inexplicably was not open).

It's a long drive to Dry Gulch... it's Northeast of Pryor, about an hour or an hour and a half from Tulsa. It's generally a good 5 degrees or more colder than it is in Tulsa, too; when we got there the thermometer in our car said 25 degrees (when we left afterward, it said 22!) And it seems like when our night comes every year, it's always REALLY cold, and usually windy enough that the wind-chill takes "freezing your spurs off" to a whole new level. But last night we were well-bundled and well-layered, and there was uncharacteristically little breeze this time, so we were pretty comfortable for most of the evening... maybe a few slightly chilled fingers and toes, but other than that, no complaints.

We got some chili/beef stew/corn dogs and had some dinner (my friend Joy was working the register... hi Joy!) then we went out to enjoy Dry Gulch. Hannah got to see a campfire for what I believe is the first time, she got to ride a pony, and she and Mikey got to hang out with the Jolly Red Guy himself, and we all rode the train, which Hannah LOVED! My favorite conversation of the evening with Hannah: "What are you looking at, Hannah?" "Dat!" "What, the train?" "The CHOO-choo train!" (Not that other inferior kind of train that they have elsewhere, I guess!)

The train ride goes right through the woods, but as you ride there is a soundtrack telling the story of God creating the world, the fall of Man, the coming of Jesus in the Christmas story, and then continuing on to Jesus' death and resurrection. There are beautiful paintings along the side of the train tracks that go along with each part of the story. When Hannah saw the picture of the angels at Jesus' birth, she said "I like dat!!" She also really liked the huge train-drives-through diorama of creation (which is just some big balls of something under blacklights, but it is kind of pretty) and as always, Hannah LOVED the part with the baby Jesus! At several points along the ride (the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection) the scenes are live, with actors and everything (there were live sheep with the shepherds coming to see Jesus!) It's a great opportunity to let kids experience the Gospel in a different way, in a very fun setting.

This year we did something we don't remember ever doing before... we stayed until they came on the speaker and announced that they were closing things for the evening! On the way home, Mikey chattered about what he had learned and some things God had been speaking to his heart, and then Cathy talked about what she was thinking, and then when she was done, Hannah babbled some baby-talk for a while! I think everybody had a GREAT time. I woke up this morning content and peaceful, but a little sore... you try doing 30-40 reps with a 30-pound 2-year-old over a three-hour period and see how YOU feel in the morning. :)

The thumbnails to the left are to some of the pictures we took; you can find the whole batch on this flickr page!

December 2009 Update

Why has it been almost a month since I've posted an update? I don't know... all KINDS of stuff has been happening! Here's a rundown...

October 24 we went to Tulsa's Oktoberfest, which is one of the best-known Oktoberfests in the United States. We go every year and get a real imported German Christmas ornament. This year it was a little trickier... the people who we've always bought our ornament from (they have a store in Wichita, but they exhibit at the Tulsa event) were not exhibitors this year. We had to find a new booth with actual German ornaments! Several booths have ornaments, but we have a tradition of buying our family ornament actually from Germany... not Poland or another European country, and certainly not from the U.S. You can see all of our Oktoberfest pictures here!

Halloween weekend Mikey and I went with a few other Webelos from his den to Webelos Outdoor Weekend. We were hosted by Boy Scout Troop 8. The boys got to earn several of their Webelos advancement pins, and we had a great time! Since it was Halloween weekend, the boys from Troop 8 decked out the permanent castle building at Cub World as a haunted house. All of the Cub Scouts loved it! See all of our pictures from the weekend here.

November 5 we got to go with some friends to a Newsboys concert! Hannah didn't come, but Cathy and Mikey and I went with a friend of Mikey's and his mom and brother. I blogged about that concert here, and there are a few pictures that Cathy took at the concert here.

All four of us went out to LaFortune Park that weekend... it was a beautiful day, and Hannah and Mikey got to swing and play almost until she couldn't swing and play any more. :) The pictures we took are here.

November 17 I got a new Bible in the mail. It's a really nice, expensive Bible, and I was blessed with it by winning a contest! If you know me very well at all, you'll know what a big deal that was to me. You can read all about it (with pictures of the new Bible!) here.

Thanksgiving came, and with it came the Joneses from Fort Worth! My brother Kevin and his family came up to visit, and Mikey loves his cousins (five girls) to pieces. They stayed at my dad & mom's house the whole time, and as always, we couldn't pry Mikey away, so he stayed over there the whole time too. Cathy and Hannah and I went over to Cathy's brother Kevin's house (yes, we both have a brother named Kevin) and spent some time with them Thanksgiving evening, too. There are some pictures of Thanksgiving here. Check out the one of Hannah making friends with Theresa's purse-hound Tia!

That same weekend we took the kids (except the two babies) to see G-Force (Cathy didn't get to go to the movie either) and then afterward we picked up Cathy and the babies and went out to Rhema to see the Christmas lights, which were fabulous as always. They had a programmed light show set to music this year that was incredible! Pictures of those two expeditions are here.

Last night Mikey was at a friend's birthday party sleepover, and Cathy and I took Hannah to see Curious George Live. It was a very cute story about George helping his friend Chef Pasketti enter a meatball-cooking contest! The show was fun... all of those "Kid-TV-franchise Live" shows are great spectacles... and the actor playing George did some very convincing monkey moves! Hannah wasn't as mesmerized with it as we had hoped, but she had a lot of fun and came home with a Curious George Live flag banner. :) (Mikey had lots of fun playing Wii at Kai's birthday party, too!)

Today Mikey's soccer team played (and won) their last game of the season. It was REALLY cold... mid-30s and breezy... and several of the kids (including Mikey) were just wearing their regular uniforms with no extra clothes under to keep them warm! They were really COLD!

Finally, this afternoon when Hannah was taking her nap, we put up our Christmas tree and some other decorations. Here's the result:

Hannah REALLY likes a little ceramic Nativity scene that we always set out. She kept wanting me to let her hold Baby Jesus!