As kids, my parents took my brother and I to see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat a couple times and we really liked it. As we got older, we took our spouses to see it too. It’s one of our favorites! We love the music and it’s just an all around great show! Earlier this fall, my parents decided our Christmas gift would be to take the whole Tracy side of the family to see Joseph at the Ordway in St. Paul. We found a weekend that would fit all our schedules since my brother and his family would have to drive up from Omaha. We chose Saturday, December 11. None of us figured it would be such an adventure!

I got a bad cold last week and stayed home from work on Thursday and Friday. I was so exhausted on Thursday and didn’t even have the energy to get out of bed to take cold medicine. I was feeling a little better on Friday, but still didn’t figure it would be a good idea to be around brand new babies with the amount of germs I had on me! It turned out to be a good thing I was home. The weather was expected to turn treacherous by Friday night, so my mom, brother, and I decided my parents, brother & his family would all stay at our house Friday and Saturday nights since it’s a lot closer to St. Paul than my parents’ house. Seth made it to our house late Friday night.

We woke up Saturday morning (the day of Joseph) to several inches of snow and crazy wind. Brian, my dad, and brother went out to clear the driveway so we could start making our way downtown. It was still snowing so hard! As they would clear an area, it would get snowed on again. It was clearly an uphill battle.

The show started at 2, so we decided to leave at 11 and hopefully would be able to get to the Ordway and get some lunch. Good decision. It took 2 hours to drive there (normally it would take us 40-45 minutes)! The roads were horrible! Visibility was terrible. We had to stop every few miles to clean off the windshield wipers. We were traveling in 2 vehicles. We saw car after car in the ditch or stuck on exit ramps. Brian is an awesome driver in that kind of weather. I was white knuckled the whole way there.

It was 1 by the time we got to the parking ramp. We ventured through the skyways and found the theater. We were ready for some lunch. The guys headed out into the snow to find a nearby Jimmy John’s but learned it had just closed! There was a pub nearby that whipped us up some club sandwiches and the boys delivered them to us. We munch on them in the lobby of theater, then went to find our seats. We were seated at 2 only to hear an announcement that the show would be delayed until 2:30 as the cast hadn’t all arrived yet!

I went out and took a picture of the snowstorm from the lobby:

So it was finally show time and then they announced the performance would take place without a full cast. I’m not sure how many cast members were absent, but Joseph is supposed to be 1 of 12 brothers, and he was only 1 of 10 for the first half, and 1 of 9 for the second half as one of the ‘brothers’ played another role in the second half. Regardless, it was still a phenomenal performance! I found myself tearing up a few times. I’m not sure if that was due to the nostalgia of the show, or all we had gone through to get there, or just my love of the show in general. It was probably a combination.

After the show, we were all dreading the drive home. We pulled out of the parking ramp and saw this:

Pretty park, but notice all the snow in the streets. The streets of downtown St. Paul were just awful. We came across many stuck cars and were just hoping we’d be able to get out of the area. Luckily, we escaped! Once we got on the freeway, it was a completely different experience! We could see a pretty good distance in front of us, and the roads were actually quite passable. We saw many cars that were stuck in snow banks. It looked like a lot of them had tried to exit, but turned off too early into a snow bank instead of the exit ramp! Duh! We made it home in a quick hour and 15 minutes! The hardest part was getting my brother’s caravan into the driveway! He got a little stuck….But Brian got out the snow blower and cleared the driveway again and they were able to dig out the van and get it into the driveway! Whew!

Then it was time for our family dinner and Christmas celebration. We had put a ham in the oven before we left, so it was ready to enjoy when we got home. Dinner was yummy, then it was time to open presents. Here are the kiddos in front of the tree:

We were all exhausted after our adventurous day and were in bed by 10. We woke up Sunday morning and all hit the Pancake House!! My family had never been there before but had heard about it from many of my Facebook posts! 😉 We all enjoyed our meals. Then it was time to say goodbye to my brother and his family so they could hit the road back to Omaha.He said the roads were still icy and it was slow going, but they were able to make it home.

Despite the awful weather, it was a really nice visit with my family. We can already look back and laugh.  🙂 Thanks, Mom & Dad for the tickets to Joseph and thanks Seth & Emilie for making such a crazy journey! Love you all!  🙂

Today, I took Adam to the pediatrician for his 3 year well visit. He did great! He ended up receiving 2 shots, but he was so tough and didn’t even cry! He’s 37 inches tall and weighs 31 pounds.

After the doctor, we headed off to see Santa! When we were walking into the mall, Adam and I were discussing what we should get Brian for Christmas:

Me: Adam, what do you think we should get Daddy for Christmas?

Adam: I think….we should get Daddy a car.

Me: A car?!?! Doesn’t Daddy already have a car?

Adam: Well, yes. But I think he needs another one.

Great. Kiddo is an expensive gift giver!

So we made it into the mall and found Santa. Adam took off his coat and marched up to sit on Santa’s lap. They had quite the conversation while I snapped some pictures. Adam asked Santa for a bike and also told him he likes trains. I walked up by them and told Adam to tell Santa how he was such a good boy at the doctor and didn’t even cry when he got his 2 shots. Santa was impressed. Then I asked Adam if he told Santa everything he wanted for Christmas before we left. Adam looks up at Santa and says:

“I pooped on the potty before we left the house!”

Santa was a little taken aback and surprised to be told this information, but then he told Adam that was a great job and gave him a high five!

So Thanksgiving was great!! Brian made it home from Iowa through the snow and ice storm Wednesday night. I worked during the day Thanksgiving then we had a wonderful meal at Dora and Fred’s. We also had a birthday cake for Adam. Everyone there was so generous by giving him gifts and wearing dinosaur party hats! Adam had such a nice birthday!

I worked the rest of the weekend as well. On Sunday afternoon we figured it would be a great time to get our Christmas tree. We went to Home Depot where we have had great luck in previous years. We were pretty bummed when we walked in because there were hardly any trees left, and the ones that were left were small and not very nice looking. Then….there it was. Straight out of a scene from Christmas Vacation (sort of)….our tree. It was tall, full, and looked fabulous. Brian and I took turns looking it over and couldn’t believe this gorgeous tree was still available!

We got it home and into the stand and marveled at our awesome find!

I started putting on lights. It was crazy. I just kept grabbing string after string after string and loading them onto the tree. Soon, I started blowing fuses. I am now a professional light string fuse changer! My electrical engineer hubby advised me on how to make that stop happening and I continued piling on the lights. I finally reached the top and couldn’t believe it! I lost count how many are on there, but it’s gotta be about 2000!

I spent an entire evening working on the tree. Between the lights and the ornaments, it was quite a project. But I love it! Here is the finished tree:

Some other Ongoings:

Brian has been home since Thanksgiving! He is here until next Sunday when he’ll have to be gone for a week, but that should be the end of his long stints away from home!! We are all ecstatic!! It has been so nice having him back home! Plus, his company shuts down between Christmas and New Year’s! AND he is able to take off 2 more weeks in January as comp time since he has been working his tail off for so many months! He is so excited to hang out with us and do some ice fishing! We will be so excited to have him around! YAY!!

I took Adam to the dentist for the first time and he did really well!! I got my teeth cleaned first while he watched and saw how it works. He told me I was doing a really great job!  🙂 Then it was his turn. He laid in the chair and opened his mouth and did everything the hygienist and dentist asked him. Whew! Here he is ready for his turn:

Our final ongoing involves the poor truck. Brian is an avid ice fisherman and every year he makes me giggle because he gets SO excited to start ice fishing! During the warmer months he stores his portable ice house and all his gear on a shelf above the truck in the garage. Last night, I was in the family room and I could hear him rummaging around in the garage getting some of his equipment ready. I heard a huge CRASH! I didn’t hear Brian swearing or saying anything, so I ran to the garage to be sure he was OK. I couldn’t see him, but he responded that he was fine and just on the other side of the truck. Here is what I saw:

The windshield is shattered, but that’s really the only damage. We needed a new windshield anyway……

Well, that’s about it for now. Brian just got home from fishing and we’re excited to hit the Pancake House in the morning! We haven’t been there in a LONG time! G’night!