I am so thankful for POWER! Yes, electricity--ours went out on Christmas Day as did 70% of the Little Rock area.
Officially, we had 9" of snow but there were layers of freezing rain and sleet before the snow came. And in our side yard it was about 12"--not a place where it would drift either.
It looks like a tornado has gone through in some areas with so many trees and power poles down.
Our power came on late Saturday evening and we came home this morning.
Thank you to all the electric companies who sent personnel from surrounding states. We have needed all the help we could get.
We stayed here a couple of days after it first went out but the bone-chilling cold finally got the best of us.
I called my brother's wife (they just live about 10 minutes away but were at their cabin in the woods with power) and she told us we could use their home.
We moved in--our kids came from Tulsa and moved in--we carried groceries for lots of people for several days over to her house--cooked all day Friday for our FINALLY Christmas celebration that evening.
One son and his family made it in safely on Christmas Day. It takes about 4 hours to get here from Tulsa and there was just about that time frame--They left about 9 in the morning and got to Little Rock right before the sleet and freezing rain started.
Our youngest son and his family (new baby three weeks old) decided not to brave the weather Christmas Day and we were so thankful that they didn't try to come because they would have had no place to stay with heat.
Anyway, they ended up coming on Thursday after the power was back on in my brother's house so we all got to see one another and everyone got to meet James, our new grandson.
Thank you so much to all of you who prayed for us.
It has been a fiasco to say the least, a very DIFFERENT Christmas for us but one we will LONG remember.
One daughter-in-law, Kim, did not get to celebrate with us. She is real sick with some kind of viral infection.
Our daughter-in-law, Traci, has been at the hospital with her mom who was taken Christmas Eve to the hospice floor. She left for a few hours to come spend Christmas with us.
There were many tears when she walked in because we thought she was not going to make it.
Our hearts were broken that Kim couldn't make it and that Traci came under heavy circumstances but our hearts are so grateful for so many things.
Michael's family will be staying here tonight. They are still without power as are about 25,000 others here in Little Rock.
We give praise and glory to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave us great cause to celebrate.
I love each of you and I know a lot of you have had tremendous struggles and disappointments during this Christmas season. But we are blessed, aren't we?
So blessed!
Love,
Dianne
© all photographs and text property of Dianne Hogue unless otherwise noted
Officially, we had 9" of snow but there were layers of freezing rain and sleet before the snow came. And in our side yard it was about 12"--not a place where it would drift either.
It looks like a tornado has gone through in some areas with so many trees and power poles down.
Our power came on late Saturday evening and we came home this morning.
Thank you to all the electric companies who sent personnel from surrounding states. We have needed all the help we could get.
We stayed here a couple of days after it first went out but the bone-chilling cold finally got the best of us.
I called my brother's wife (they just live about 10 minutes away but were at their cabin in the woods with power) and she told us we could use their home.
We moved in--our kids came from Tulsa and moved in--we carried groceries for lots of people for several days over to her house--cooked all day Friday for our FINALLY Christmas celebration that evening.
One son and his family made it in safely on Christmas Day. It takes about 4 hours to get here from Tulsa and there was just about that time frame--They left about 9 in the morning and got to Little Rock right before the sleet and freezing rain started.
Our youngest son and his family (new baby three weeks old) decided not to brave the weather Christmas Day and we were so thankful that they didn't try to come because they would have had no place to stay with heat.
Anyway, they ended up coming on Thursday after the power was back on in my brother's house so we all got to see one another and everyone got to meet James, our new grandson.
Thank you so much to all of you who prayed for us.
It has been a fiasco to say the least, a very DIFFERENT Christmas for us but one we will LONG remember.
One daughter-in-law, Kim, did not get to celebrate with us. She is real sick with some kind of viral infection.
Our daughter-in-law, Traci, has been at the hospital with her mom who was taken Christmas Eve to the hospice floor. She left for a few hours to come spend Christmas with us.
There were many tears when she walked in because we thought she was not going to make it.
Our hearts were broken that Kim couldn't make it and that Traci came under heavy circumstances but our hearts are so grateful for so many things.
Michael's family will be staying here tonight. They are still without power as are about 25,000 others here in Little Rock.
We give praise and glory to our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave us great cause to celebrate.
I love each of you and I know a lot of you have had tremendous struggles and disappointments during this Christmas season. But we are blessed, aren't we?
So blessed!
Love,
Dianne
© all photographs and text property of Dianne Hogue unless otherwise noted
