A Christmas adventure and hopes for the New Year
I hope everyone had a good and safe Christmas this year. For me I was able to go north to my hometown of Thief River Falls and visit with family who lives there. Compared to the big get togethers in the past, this one was more scaled back and relatively quiet.
It was still good to see family. I grew up in a rather large extended family when the holidays meant getting together with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Christmas Day usually meant going to three different places, at the least, to see family and friends. Add in early mornings for my parents to get four children out of bed, checking the stockings first for treats, then opening presents in a flurry of flying wrapping paper and bows, if there was time we could play a little with our new toys, otherwise my parents tried to get us to eat a little breakfast before making sure all four of us were dressed in our best for church. It made for a hectic, but thankfully, good morning.
As one comic strip I saw recently said the best gifts children get on Christmas are the making of memories.
This year I was glad to make the roughly 300 mile trip. The weather on the way to Thief River Falls was good. The weather back, not so much. It was one of those times where a snowstorm made for a little adventure. It was the type of storm where the falling snow sometimes seemed to come down almost straight into the headlights or a passing semi-truck kicked up enough snow that everything disappeared into flying snow. Due to the storm and blowing snow I and others slowed down on the interstate. At one point I could just see up ahead in the road that other vehicles were driving with their hazard lights on. I decided it was best to find a motel room in Alexandria to wait out the storm until morning. The next morning was better, although I still took my time in being cautious.
We will be starting a new year on Friday night. I hope that people have fun in bringing in 2022. Like other new years I hope this will be one with its good times, although I realize that every year will have its ups and downs. From all of us at The New Prague Times may you have a happy and safe Happy New Year!