South Carolina Christmas 2004

First of all MERRY CHRISTMAS to all stevansheets.com visitors!

Stevan and Jessica REALLY wish each of you a joyous holiday this year as you celebrate firstly, the birth of the One who makes all things possible.

Now, here we go:

Jess and I left on Thursday at 2:51PM after we finished up at the funeral home and the graveside service. We got through Fort Wayne and down into Indianapolis without any trouble.

Once we got onto I-74 is when the trouble started. What SHOULD-HAVE taken a maximum of 3-hours to drive from Indy to Cincy ended up taking us more than 8-hours!

We were down to one-lane most of the way, with HUGE piles of snow on either side of the road and throughout the evening, we counted 57-vehicles off the road along the highway! 50 of those were BEFORE Cincinnatti!

At one time, we sat for nearly 2-hours on I-74 behind miles of traffic as supposedly 2-tractor-trailers were doing their best to climb a small hill and were unsuccessful in their attempts, delaying those behind them. It was terrible.

We finally decided to stop for a hotel soon after we eventually got onto our NEXT highway – I-75, heading South. We had to try three different exits and finally settled into a pretty nasty Knights Inn in some random city in Kentucky. Thankfully the bed was clean and they had running water to satisfy our needs. We slept for a few hours and were back on the road at 9AM. We didn’t settled until after 1AM, so we rested well!

The view the next morning was absolutely incredible and the roads were absolutely gorgeous, too! We were able to make GREAT time on Friday and arrived here in Boiling Springs, South Carolina before 3PM!

We enjoyed a great dinner with Mom and Dad at Steak & Ale on Christmas Eve and then a great time at the local theater watching “Christmas With the Kranks”, too!

We came back home, drank some egg-nog, and enjoyed opening our presents together on Christmas Eve.

This morning we all got to sleep in a bit and then Jess and I made breakfast around 9. We had French Toast, eggs, and sausage. Good times here at the Sheets’ household!

In a couple hours we will have a much-needed conversation with my sister, Sherilyn who is in Bosnia right now. That will be good for the soul.

So, what did we get for Christmas?

Here are the highlights…

Stevan & Jess: a globe from Sherilyn

Stevan: DVDs and a new sweater from Jess (and my toy that I told you all about weeks ago!), a new rolling toolbox from Mom and Dad, some games from Mom and Dad, some odds and ends from my sister, and of course my yearly Hess Truck from Mom and Dad!

Jess: two Josh Groban DVDs/CDs from her “best husband in the whole wide world”, AND this: a 1-hour Swedish massage, a manicure, and a pedicure from the “West End Spa” here in South Carolina – she and Mom will both be going to the Spa on Tuesday for some much needed pampering! Jess and I helped Sherilyn in getting the same spa-treatment for Mom. Jess also got some pretty cool stuff from Mom and Dad and Sherilyn, but you’ll need to ask her what they all are.

It’s been REALLY good to be here so far. I got to teach Mom some finer things of copying and pasting and cutting and pasting files and images on this – their personal computer. Bless her heart, she’s still typing with just her two index fingers!!!

Thank you to all of you who have been praying for us! The trip was QUITE the adventure as you probably saw if you were watching the news anytime this week! We were safe the entire time and were VERY glad to arrive here in South Carolina in one piece!

I will post pictures as soon as I can – I’ve got some good ones of the road and the ice storm that we woke up to in Kentucky! I couldn’t connect to anyone’s wireless internet, so I’m having to use Mom and Dad’s wonderful (sarcastic) dial-up internet today.

Sad.