The GRINCH that (almost) stole Christmas!

The first day of winter was Saturday, December 21st. The first day of winter we had a major ice storm. Our lights kept flickering and I prayed we would NOT lose power.

In the early hours of Sunday, we heard a HUGE crash and our house shook and we lost power instantly. May I add when we lose power...we lose water.

Huge limbs came crashing down and literally RIPPED the power lines off our house. This was NOT a good sign. Our phone lines we also affected. After a bit we went to work to use our phone. The wait time to get ahold of DTE was 30 minutes. Since we had down live wires in our yard, they wanted to talk to us. After an hour and a half on hold...I hung up.

The week had been hard for us. At night it was creepy to hear so many branches come falling down. The ice noises were unsettling.

What was more unsettling....everyone on our street had power but us. The outage numbers were staggering in our region. When we finally got ahold of DTE...we were told we were ONE house and going to be the last to be taken care of. The massive were more important. I understood that...but didn't like it.

Our house got cold. The lowest was 32 degrees. I could not take it. I felt bad for our three cats. They KNEW something was up. They hung on me as I wrapped myself in the down comforter. I felt so guilty when we had to go to work...leaving them home alone in the cold and dark.

Work was also unsettling. We had to go...but it was disheartening to hardly have any business. I understood....so many were dealing with their own situation...why come to us? Restaurants, grocery stores and the gas stations were the only ones that were busy.

I wanted a shower. We could wash up at work, but it wasn't the same.

We started to get on each others nerves. Both of us were......irritable.

I didn't think it would get any worse...but on Christmas Eve...TOM came. I was NOT happy as you ladies can WELL imagine. That was the final straw for me. The house temp was now 32 and I ....could NOT take it.

My mother got her power back Monday night. I wanted to go there. I had to go there. I was so torn.....the poor cats. Greg said he would take me there and come back home...to be with the cats and to watch over our place. The water was turned off...the lines drained...but he was still afraid for our place. Plus...he HOPED that DTE would indeed show up.

I was skeptical.

It wasn't long before Greg called me........A SUB CONTRACTOR from VIRGINIA was at our house! They could NOT climb the pole and fix our house...BUT they could tap into our neighbors and get us going! The neighbors were to be told that they would not be charged for power these days we were to be hooked up to them.

The wires they spread out and attached them up to our trees and told Greg NOT to go in the back yard. (NO PROBLEM! LOL!)

When we are NOT home...we are to unplug sensitive equipment in case of a huge surge to our place.

It took from 5pm to 11pm on Christmas Eve to go from 32 degrees to 63 in our house.

The cats....are happy. They also spend a lot of time on the registers.

Showers are wonderful....heat and water are wonderful.

I love my home...I love being home......our days are long with work...but.....I VALUE my time at home.

All I wanted for Christmas was our power back......

We had our Christmas Miracle on Christmas Eve....

and the GRINCH lost!