Christmas Times A Coming Part 1

It's getting near that time of year again. It seems to come even quicker each year. It can be the most hectic time of the year as well. Trying to keep with traditions or start new ones, holiday parties and dinners, plays, concerts, gift buying and wrapping and the mad rush to get it all done in time can be very nerve racking and exhausting. 

And then imagine something like a catastrophic event happening right during this time. Or even an inconvenient occurrence to take place. Everything comes to a screeching hault. 

That's what happened to us for the Christmas season of 2022. I was busy preparing for the Holidays I'm the midst of also having to work that weekend as well. I had most everything ready and all of the presents bought and wrapped when the first inconvenience happened. 

I have forgotten what reason that we lost power for most of the day that Friday before, but that's what happened. It may have been an ice storm or something to that nature. But the losing power part i distinctivly remember because I had waited until that day to put my big Christmas tree up because my youngest granddaughter who lives with us would be away until Monday and I wouldn't have to stress or fuss about her getting into it and she would still be able to see it on Monday morning when she got back. 

So my older granddaughter who lives with us and I got to work putting the tree up, fully decorated with all of the ornaments that I have collected throughout the years. But of course we wouldn't be able to see what the lights would look like until the power was restored. We didn't have to wait too long though, they were finally restored and things started looking brighter again (pun intended).

As the weekend was moving along my plans to make a slew of goodies to snack on for Christmas was going to take place on Sunday since we were extending our Christmas through Monday because of work and the kids being gone for that entire weekend. But that all got changed in a blink of an eye. 

I was lying down to get a short winters nap for work later that evening but not for long because I quickly arose to see what was the matter when I was rudely awaken and what to my surprise did arise but a great big mess, not out on the lawn but only a room away that also later lead to huge stress. ~ It may not have been a complete catastrophic event but at the moment it seemed like one. 

What had happened on this peaceful Christmas Eve, was a water pipe in the apartment complex we live in burst 4 floors above us and all of that water came pouring through the air vents and light switches in our kitchen, hallway and laundry room. 

It was coming fast, faster than we could collect it in our buckets and whatever we could find to collect the pourdown in at the moment. As we were trying to figure out what else to do and as I was trying to get in touch with our maintenance team, the fire department had knocked on our door to come in to access our apartment. By this time they had just shut off the power and water. 

The one who came in told us that our apartment had sustained the most amount of water also told us not to use anything that was connected to electricity. Which by this point I wasn't really planning on it especially after seeing all that water pouring out of the light switches. 

But then it also became increasingly evident that it wasn't going to be a good idea to try to stay in the apartment all night with no electricity or heat nor water either. 

So we had to make a quick decision because it was getting dark and it was Christmas Eve and everything was closing. We still needed something for supper as well. 

So after unfortunately having to call off of work for that evening, and after talking to our office manager about a place to stay we settled on one of our nearby hotels to stay the night at. 

The one that the red cross was offering was 3 towns over and not of the best quality or reputation. So I got us booked for the night but apparently just barley since the room was being reserved for others that apparently weren't showing up after all. Good news for us. 

We packed a bag and headed out to grab dinner before everything closed up for the evening. And then my daughter who had gotten off from work, joined us at the hotel. At least we were safe and together and no one had been injured. And the kids didn't have to endure any of this because they were safe elsewhere during this ordeal. 

It was a long night with not very good sleep for any of us but we tried to make the best of it. My daughter had to go to work the next morning. And I was off of work. And since we didn't know no more than we did that night before about how safe our apartment would be to return, we had to let the hotel know whether we needed another night or not by 11am So we decided to eer on the side of caution and book another night. 

So that next day was Christmas Day! And I don't ever recall staying in a hotel for Christmas or Christmas Eve ever before. So it was definitely different. Especially since it was not preplanned. But we tried to make the best of it. 

Meanwhile throughout the day, we checked on the apartment and our cat who was there. It would have been more of a stressful event for him to have tried bringing him with us or taking him elsewhere than to just leave him and check on him. And with us being literally across the street from him and being walking distance, we checked on him several times that day. I also continued to look out of the hotel window over to the apartment complex on a constant (what else was there to do) for any signs of life or should I say our Maintenance crew. And might I add they did not disappoint. They sacrificed their Christmas Day and weeks to come to get us all back up and running. I could see our apartment from the hotel window. I'm glad they put us on that side of the hotel. 

The maintenance men were able to check the electrical wires and deemed them safe for turning back on, and had them back on not long after lunchtime that day. So in a way, they saved Christmas for some of us. Some of my neighbors ended up not returning to their apartments for awhile. 

So since we had already told the hotel that we would stay another night we decided to do that because we had already reserved the room and we felt safer staying at least one more night at the hotel. 

So upon our return to our apartment on Monday morning, we still had a lot of water lying around but they had installed a dehumidifier to help with that and then within another day or so they placed a fan and eventually some more dehumidifiers. And I'm talking about the industrial ones too, not the small kind. 

That was the beginning of more stress which I'll talk about in another blog. But on to finish this story for now. 

So since I couldn't do anything on Sunday, as far as preparing the goodies I had in mind, and since we were having our Christmas together Monday morning, I only had enough time to get the presents put around the tree and the stockings hung. And I'm so glad that I had decided to wait on the stockings because if not then they would have gotten wet and probably destroyed by the flood water. And thankfully no water came through the living room at all to mess up anything. 

We were very fortunate to not have anything destroyed and what got water logged was able to be cleaned and dried. And the flooring and carpet was replaced. Which will be talked more about in another blog as well because it's an ordeal that will forever stick in my mind. 

But for now I'll end this blog and say that Christmas may have been a little different for 2022 but we were safe and things could have been worse but it will be a memorable one for sure and hopefully not be repeat ever again. 

If you have enjoyed reading my blogs make sure to read some of the others that I've written.