Christmas in the Mountains

In about 1967 we decided that it would be fun for the kids to have a white Christmas. They had never seen snow and they were very excited. We took our Christmas account and by adding to it we were able to rent a cabin in Lake Tahoe. We purchased our Christmas gifts at the Good Will since it took so much money to rent the cabin.

We left home for the mountains on Christmas eve day. What should have been a 4 hour trip took us at least 6 as we were in front of a huge storm. We had to stop and put chains on and we barely made it to the cabin when all the roads from Sacramento were closed. We were so excited to be in beautiful Lake Tahoe, and snug in our little cabin in the snow. We made dinner and did the Nativity Scene with the kids. After steaming cups of cocoa we put all the kids to bed. Jay was about 9 and Sherry was 7,Sandi was 6 and Mark was 4 and the baby Michael was about 18 months.

Larry and I set up all the gifts on a table and went to bed in anticipation of Christmas morning. What we awoke to was a huge snow storm. It had piled snow up to the middle of all the windows and we couldn't even open the door. It was beautiful. After breakfast and after the kids had opened their gifts we bundled them all up and went out to play in the snow. We shoveled off the porch and as Larry was just finishing up a huge pile of snow slid off the roof and onto the porch that he had just shoveled. We all had a great laugh. Then we went sledding and Jay found some 6 foot icecyles hanging from the eaves. He had one huge popscycle! We were snowed in for 2 days which was exactly perfect as that is when we had planned to leave for home. We had to dig the car out, it was completely buried.

The kids loved their first white Christmas and they didn't even notice that they had Good Will toys! I'm sure if you asked them they would still remember that Christmas as one of their favorites!