This is not the HoHoHo we were hoping for

My sister Sue works in a hospital lab, which means she works at least some holidays each year as the lab has to be up and functional 24/7 regardless of what day of the year it is. She's worked Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day many, many times over her 34-year med tech career. Last year, after working everyday of Christmas and (I think) some of New Year's, too, she put in a 2013 vacation request to have real holiday over the holidays for the first time ever. Until now, the most consecutive time she's had off over the holidays is 4 days. She works second shift, which means she worked until 1:30 am or something like that this past Friday, then began her first-ever, utterly luxurious Christmas vacation with 11 consecutive days off work.

She's off until New Year's Day. Her plan was to come here, originally leaving Sunday or Monday. She's been watching the weather forecast closely, trying to best time what looks to be a problematic drive in terms of weather. On Friday night, she decided to throw everything in the car when she got up Saturday and leave then, ahead of the ice storm in Sunday's forecast.

( You just know that didn't go as planned, right? )

We're both hoping she gets electricity back Monday. Neither one of us is betting on it. When the power comes back, she'll have have more options than she has right now. I just hope she ends up with something resembling a vacation out of this and not just a long, cold 11 days dealing with the ice storm and its aftermath at home. And if she makes it here after all, so much the better!