Christmas Continued

Around 1:30 or so, the rain we had been getting started to switch over to more of an icy mix.  At this point, I know I was and think Brad was hoping for the switch to snow.  About an hour after it started getting a little icy, our power went out.  At this point, there really wasn't much ice on the branches or power lines so we assumed that maybe there had been an accident.  I called in the outage to the power company and was given an estimate of 6:30 for our power to come back on.  The afternoon wore on and the kids painted and enjoyed their new toys.  It was becoming obvious to Brad and I that Christmas dinner was not going to happen.

We finally decided to see if we could get out and find some place with power and a warm meal.  We headed out towards I430 and the power was out in pockets until we got to the other side.  At this point, there were still houses in our neighborhood with power.  Sleet was still falling but the roads were good and it wasn't sticking too much.  We made our way to West Little Rock and finally found an open restaurant; Fu Lin.  Yes, we had a Christmas Story moment, "Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra."  My regret was that the kids aren't old enough to appreciate what happened.  During dinner, we noticed that the switch over to snow had finally arrived and it was sticking.  We briefly discussed just stopping at a hotel for the night but were still under the impression that the power wouldn't be out long and I was somewhat concerned about not being able to get home the next day if we got too much snow.

We got home and got ready to camp out downstairs for the night since obviously 6:30 had come and gone long ago with no power.  We spread out some sleeping bags and pulled out a ton of blankets.  Emma and Josh had lots of fun putting on a show by candlelight before bed time and were so excited to "camp."  After we extinguished the candles and called it a night, we could hear the branches snapping and falling from the trees throughout the night but still, we had no idea what Little Rock would be facing the next morning.  To be continued...