{not your average Christmas Day}

Well, while our Christmas was merry, none of it was typical. Both of our families live close, and while this is a blessing, it also means a lot of back and forth. Christmas Eve actually was fairly normal for us. We had an hour and a half of presents between the cousins and visiting with my family at my Aunt’s house, then dinner with Josh’s family at PF Changs, back to Josh’s parents house for this Christmas Eve game we play each year and dessert. Then we went back to my parents house for Christmas Eve pajamas and to spend the night. Christmas DAY was when things started getting unusual.

We woke up Christmas morning and it was just weird. My brother Scotty is in the MTC, and Christian and Marci and baby Eden are in Texas this year so it was just me and Josh and Cameron and Chad (and my parents of course). It was odd to have such a small group!! But it was still nice and happy! We just missed everyone!! Josh opened his “Rock Band” that I gave him. It was a HIT. We was VERY surprised and excited. I was so glad! I couldn’t WAIT to give it to him!!!

Then we headed over to Josh’s parents house around 10:30 for Christmas morning with the Leavitts. On our way over we got a call from Sean telling us that Josh’s dad had fallen that morning and split his forehead open and they were currently at the hospital getting stitches. We arrived about 15 minutes before they got back from hospital. Josh’s dad was ok, but obviously in pain and a little bit woozy. So we had a quite a delay getting things going there. But again, we were able to give each other our gifts and have a good time. But Josh’s parents go a little NUTS with presents. They give WAY WAY WAY too many!! It was a MARATHON as Josh described it. We opened presents for almost 4 hours straight. It was insane!!! Of course we are so appreciative of all they give us, but man oh man! That was a LOT of opening presents.

So around 3:30 Josh and I finally get packed up and head to our house to drop off our first of two loads of presents. We walk in the door and the carbon monoxide detectors are going off. Great. About a month ago, they went off, we had to evacuate, the readings were SUPER high and it turns out the furnace needed to be fixed. We had no heat for over a week or so, and then when it got fixed the landlords didn’t bother to tell us so we went without heat for at least two days longer than we needed to. The whole thing is downstairs where the landlords son and daughter in law and kids live so they handled everything last time. But obviously it didn’t get fixed right. Well, the downstairs people were out of town and not answering their cell phones. So Josh let himself in and turned off the detector only to have it turn on again right away. We knew we needed to get out. We left messages on their cell phones, changed into actual clothes (we were still in our Christmas pajamas) and headed back to Josh’s parents’ house. I was so upset. I was hungry and cold and soooo tired. I just wanted to go into our house, unpack some presents and lie down in my bed for a little while before we had to go back to Josh’s parents house for Christmas dinner. But, no!!

As we pull up to Josh’s parents house, the people downstairs finally call back and we have to go all the way back home again to follow his instructions on turning off the gas. He said he wasn’t planning on being home for another two and half days, but he might come home early. Come to find out he’s only in Eagle Mountain which is like a half hour away. Oh brother!!! (Have you gotten the gist that our landlords SUCK by now). He says he’s going to come over sometime during the day and not to stay at the house but to call him that night when we get home.

So we go to Josh’s parents, try and relax for a bit, before having to get up and get things ready for dinner. Dinner turned out to be lovely. Yummy ham and salad and my first batch of Au-gratin Potatoes ever. It was nice. But through dinner its obvious that Josh’s dad does not feel well. As we are starting to finish dinner he decides to go upstairs and lie down. Not much longer he comes back down and says he wants to go back to the hospital because he’s just in too much pain.

So the guys all give him a blessing and the Sean takes him back to the hospital. Our game of Apples to Apples that was in the works sort of lost its thunder and we all decided to pack up and call it a night.

We get home and can’t get a hold of the people downstairs AGAIN. And we don’t feel comfortable trusting his assessment of the situation anyway. So Josh calls the fire department and the next thing I know, I’m standing outside wrapped in my “Enchanted” blanket that Josh gave me for Christmas, waiting with a police officer for the fire department to come. They go through the house with Josh and get a small reading of Carbon Monoxide near the furnace. They dispatch the gas company to come out. But before they left, the reading had gone down to almost zero.

In the middle of all this, we got a text from Sean saying they ordered a cat-scan for Josh’s dad and if it comes back ok, they will give him some pain medication for his injury.

The fire department and the ambulance and the cop all leave and I call our landlord who lives in California. He is a little gruff with me, and seems annoyed and immediately hands the phone over to our downstairs neighbors. YES, he is IN UTAH for Christmas and could be handling this all himself! Oh man, I was ticked off!!!!

Through a lot of talking with the guy who lives downstairs we get all our stories straight and they told us that they would take care of it as soon as they could. Whatever! Then the gas man gets here and spends a LOT of time walking through the house talking to Josh trying to detect Carbon Monoxide. He detects nothing. They turn on the furnace and the readings of Carbon Monoxide that the furnace is putting out are way over the normal limit. He red-tagged our furnace (whatever that means). So basically we just need a new furnace.

As all that was winding down we got a text saying the cat-scan came back fine and that Josh’s dad is ok. I hope he is feeling better today. Josh has had a couple calls from him this morning asking about our house and the heat and said he sounded ok.

Wow, this is a long story but the bottom line is we have no heat. We are trying to keep warm with space heaters. I wish you could see me right now, I’m bundled from head to foot in my freezing cold living room with two space heaters blasting at me. But its still cold. We’ve decided enough is enough, and we’ve started looking for a new place to live. We’ll see if we can find anything.

So yes, it was a weird Christmas. It was good, and we did have a nice time with family, but so many crazy things happened, it was NOT your average Christmas Day!

Sorry for the novel!! If you are still reading this you are a champ!!