As I write this, I am sitting next to a warm fire and candles all around. We woke this morning to no electricity and no water, the joys of living in Georgia mountains. Last night, the winds here were so strong they blew trees down all around us.
Let me paint the picture in your mind. I woke up around 6:30, way way too early to be up on Christmas day. The power was out and I needed light. I grabbed my headlamp and decided to grab some water from upstairs. I figured I would go straight back to bed and sleep a little. As I made my sleepy body trudge up each step, an aroma hit my nose that was not so good. It took me a second to distinguish the scent and realized that it was dog poo. Ugh….so when I finally got to the top, the smell about knocked me over. I looked everywhere for it but my headlamp was fading. I could not see anything on the floor and then SQUISH….I found it all right…..my left foot had smashed right into it. I said a few choice words, laughing at myself but trying to not wake others. I ran to the bathroom and then remembered the water was out as well. Luckily my mom buys tons of bottled water and so I grabbed a bottle and washed my foot over the toilet. Now I was ready to clean! I slowly made my way to the living room to scower for the remains, but my headlamp was still failing me. Little did I know there were little land mines all over the living room floor. I slowly began to look again, being even more careful than the first time and then SQUISH…now my right foot had come down on a pile. I had the same reaction as the first and ran to the bathroom.
Meanwhile our old dog Jack, the culprit, was lying by the door waiting to go out. I decided to take him out and then deal with the mess. As I was outside, I heard a squeal and a few more choice words. My mom had come down the stairs on the other side of the room and well, you know what happens after that. We spent a good 30 minutes….looking and cleaning as much as we could.
Then, as we finished up and the sun began to shine light, we decided to go out and assess the damage that our windstorm last night had done. We found a tree across our driveway and a tree sticking through my stepdad’s outdoor shed. As we made our game plan we decided to start chopping. Next thing I know, all our neighbors started to show up, without us calling, to help us with our trees. It was a beautiful picture of love and what Christmas is all about.
