White Christmas

Well, this was probably the most bizarre Christmas ever. At the beginning of the week, the weathermen had been forecasting a blizzard for our area. I had heard the weather reports, but who actually pays attention to these things when a "blizzard" in Oklahoma usually consists of a couple hours of "wintry mix" and people freaking out for no reason? So, Christmas Eve rolled around. Andrew was at work and was going to meet me at his parents' house in Yukon (30 miles away) that evening. Despite the 40 mph winds and heavy sleet/snow, I left our house in Norman around 12:30. Shortly thereafter, I realized that my rear defroster was no longer working, and my front windshield was leaving me with a very limited field of vision because the windshield wipers were freezing. I made it to Moore (about 5 miles away) and had to stop at the local McDonald's because the roads were so slick and I could not see. I called Andrew's parents, and Andrew's dad (Jim) left to come pick me up and take me to their house. It took him close to 2 hours to make it to McDonald's. We left to pick up Andrew's sister, Amy, from work at the mall. We got to the mall at 4:15. By this point, I was pretty much past the point of being mad and frustrated because it was taking so long to go so short a distance. Amy, Jim, and I passed the time by singing Christmas carols and telling stories. Meanwhile, we sat between the same mile marker for about 2 hours as we watched cars slide around and get stuck in ditches. We finally made it to Yukon at about 8:30- an adventure which had started 8 hours earlier that day for me. Looking back on the whole thing, it really was an out-of-this-world experience. At first, the weathermen were saying that this was the worst storm in Oklahoma City in 20 years. As the storm progressed, though, it became "the worst storm ever in Oklahoma City." All of the highways were closed, and there were about as many cars off the road as there were on. The grand total for snowfall in Oklahoma City on Christmas Eve was 14 inches. When we woke up on Christmas morning, it looked a lot more like we were in Colorado than Oklahoma.

Aside from throwing our Christmas off a bit, the weather has also messed with my marathon training. I may have to revise my goal of running a marathon in February, which is a really hard thing for me to think about doing. I was not feeling well for about a week and half and just started feeling better about the time the bad weather rolled in. Despite the awesome Yaktrax that I got for Christmas, the roads and sidewalks have been in no condition for running. It's killing me. I tend to beat myself up when I don't meet the sometimes ridiculous goals I set for myself, but this may be one of those things that has to wait because I don't know if I'll be able to catch up with my training before the February marathon.

Andrew has a rough week ahead. He has been forewarned that this is the busiest week of the year and that he should expect to stay at work until 9 or 10:00 every night. Currently, it's 7:56 on Monday evening, and that prediction is holding true so far.

In Christ alone,
Mary Rachel