We’re home from our very eventful trip to Colorado for Christmas and New Years. If you haven’t been following, my brother-in-law’s house burned down in the Marshall Fire outside Boulder. We were staying with them. As horrible as the day was, we ended up changing our plans that morning without knowing what was about to happen … which kept us home and which meant we got our daughter and all the animals out. I’ve been playing the “what if” game a lot lately. But the flip side is that it makes me VERY appreciative of what I have.

My brother-in-law did a radio interview with the local NPR station that’s well worth your 18 minutes if you want to hear some specifics of our adventure. The fire was December 30th and we weren’t slated to leave until January 2nd. We ended up staying until January 3rd because of weather in the DC area, but we spent the extra days celebrating my niece’s 6th birthday and enjoying time with family in the hotel. The outpouring of love and support from their friends and family, my friends and family, and complete strangers is so heart-warming. A huge thank you to everybody I know that helped or is helping. You have no idea how much it means to me. It also reminds me that the news and social media aren’t an accurate reflection of actual people.

Our drive from Colorado to Virginia was uneventful. Night one was in Kansas City. Night two was in Dayton. Then home the next evening. We avoided any weather issues, traffic was light, just how I wanted it.

We spent our Saturday shopping and trying to replace some of the stuff we lost in the fire. We’re still waiting for our insurance claim, but have some stuff we know we’re going to replace no matter what. Tomorrow is back to work and to try to return to normalcy. I also wanted to try to create some new habits and morning/afternoon routines for the new year, but that was disrupted. So I’ll try to focus on those this week as well.

Hug your families. Hug your animals. Appreciate your home. Appreciate your friends and family. You, your spirit/attitude, and your relationships are all you can count on in this world.

This post has been day 46 of #100DaysToOffload

One comment

  1. This is an eye opener for all of us and I appreciate your view that social media and news aren’t so accurate on people. Very grateful that you and your family are safe.

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