We woke up early Christmas morning to a winter wonderland filled with ice and snow. The ice started Christmas eve, and the snow fell during the night. The boy’s were hoping for a white Christmas, so they were extra excited when they made their way downstairs.

They tore into their presents at rapid speed, and were giddy with giggles as they got out all of the gifts that Santa brought. The little miss was a little overwhelmed and took a long mid-morning nap.

We were planning on having all of the family in to celebrate, but the weather was just too bad. The roads were ice and snow-packed, so we called everyone early and rescheduled Christmas celebrations for another day.

James and I had a relaxing day, and we even got each other the same gift. It was a board game called Ticket To Ride, so we had a fun afternoon playing board games on the dining room table while the kiddos played with their new toys.

At nightfall we were finishing up dinner, and were talking about what a nice Christmas it had been. The kiddos were happy, and we had a fun day together as a family, then we noticed that the room was getting a little chilly.

James asked me if I thought it was cold, and I thought it was just a little. We looked at the thermostat and it read 65. It has been really cold, so we didn’t panic right away. Then we felt the vents, and they were blowing cold air.

We scrambled to get the kids upstairs where it was warmer, and where we had space heaters in place. We went back downstairs, and tried to shut off the heater, and it wouldn’t shut off at the thermostat. We then had to shut it off at the breaker, and I made a phone call to our neighbor to see if they had an extra space heater to spare.

Keep in mind this is all happening at about 8:00 p.m. Christmas evening, and the roads are terrible, so no one is getting out. Our neighbors are awesome, and they sent their kids over with an extra space heater. We put that one in the kitchen, so the pipes wouldn’t freeze. Once we had all of the space heaters on and the kids calmed down, a breaker blew, and we lost all of the power to the house.

I went back up with the flash light, and to sit with the kids, and James went back downstairs to get the power back on. We went through the house unplugging whatever we could, so we could have the space heaters on, and power too. By this time it was after 9:00 p.m., and the kids were exhausted. I got the boy’s off to bed, and their room was plenty warm with the help of a space heater.

The miss got to crash out in our room, because we had a space heater going too. We decided to stay put for the night, and get on the phone first thing tomorrow.

So here it is Saturday morning, and we’ve been calling every hvac number in the phone book, and praying that we get a call back. We are all upstairs in the two bedrooms, staying warm, but going a little stir crazy at the same time. Right now I’m just hoping that the phone will ring, and maybe the roads will get cleared so we can get someone out here.

The heater going out in an ice storm definitely made for a Christmas that we will remember for a long time…