Not Quite 8 Crazy Nights...but Close!

• Sunday, December 22: An ice storm hits coastal Maine.
• Monday, December 23: Alexa flies in for a visit; We become four in >30,000 people in Maine without power.
• Tuesday, December 24: Still no power...
• Wednesday, December 25: Still no power....but at least there is a family gathering in Dover-Foxcroft, where we can charge our phones. 
• Thursday, December 26: Still no power...until about 2:00 pm! Hurray!

We thank all of you for your concerns and prayers for us and others without power. In all seriousness, we actually had it pretty good. Sure, we didn't have power for most of the week of Christmas. But we were warm, we had running water, and we could flush the toilet. What more could you ask for when you don't have Power? Really, we were spoiled compared to a lot of other people.  I think a lot of people's concerns were related to activities, like "What did you do without power?" It was a blessing in disguise to tell you the truth. It eliminated distractions (ahem...Facebook) and helped us just enjoy spending time together as a family. We even started going to bed early, which was awesome! I'm always passing out on the couch by 9:15, so early bedtime is just fine for me.

For Christmas Eve, we hosted four missionaries for our traditional oyster stew, rolls, cider (pomegranate and pear this year), with gingerbread and whipped cream. It all turned out quite successfully actually. Luckily, all of our surrounding neighbors had power (which was the frustrating thing about losing power...we could see others around us that had power!!), so we used their oven to bake the rolls and gingerbread. We've got a propane camping stove, so we did the oyster stew there no problem. We were set! Another tradition is a candle-light dinner. This is the first time I've ever had to rely on the candles as a primary light source in my entire life of having candle-light Christmas Eve dinners. Here are some highlights from Christmas Eve: 

Look at this photo carefully...do you see that foot sticking out of the blanket toward the bottom of the page? Can you guess who it belongs to? I'll give you a hint...not Madie...

BOOM! Off to the races. He loves hiding in there.

Quite the assortment of misfit stockings. On the left, we have our 'generic' stocking from Target. The middle is Madie's that Mal made her last year. The right is a 20+ year old wool sock that Finn got to use. The book Santa gave him didn't exactly fit in there too well. We'll have to get him a more suitable stocking for next year.

On to Christmas day...

Happy as a clam carrying Madies baby.

Opening stockings from Santa.

The loot.

Finn picked up on the art of opening gifts pretty quickly.

Mal got some giant sewing needles. I also got a physical therapist lined up for her upcoming shoulder injuries.

Opening gifts at Grammy Haskins with family.

One complaint about the iPhone camera is it doesn't capture motion AT ALL. I'm seriously considering a windows phone just for a decent camera.

Sorry, Lex. I had to snap this one. Baby Thomas was so content sleeping with Lex. I think this is an Omen...Lex just has to move to Maine to keep these four little boys happy.

Finn playing with his tool bench.

Madie loved her dollhouse furniture and added it to her dollhouse.

Mal cooking some mean black bean burritos on our wood stove!

Christmas day dinner. I'll be honest, it was a bit of a let-down to come home and have the power off Christmas night. But we actually had fun cooking burritos on the wood stove.

On Thursday I just began to accept the fact that power wasn't coming back on and just decided to be content with our situation. We really didn't have it that bad. We had everything we needed, and more. The kids were happy the whole time. A few hours after making a personal resolution to be content and move on with or without power, Bangor Hydro Electric turned our power back on. The joy that we all felt was legit, my friends. It was definitely a Christmas we would never forget. In retrospect, it was an adventure.