Christmas is not the same without your husband there. Daddy is on a year-long remote assignment and Christmas was looking less-than-festive this year. I planned a road-trip with the children to Wisconsin to visit my family, attend a few weddings, and enjoy a big, messy family-style holiday. The Oklahoma ice storm changed my plans and the road-trip did not come to fruition. So I dug in for a quiet holiday. Helped friends who lost power from the storm. Kept a smile on my face.

Then my Christmas miracle happened and my sister sent me tickets to fly to Wisconsin with the kids. We had fun—we made one of the weddings and had our big, messy family-style holiday with five of my six siblings, parents, nieces, nephews, and friends. We admired the snow and tried to play in it but were soon encouraged by the frigid winds to return inside. The kids had their first airplane rides and were troopers. We survived a 3-hour layover at DFW. Our luggage was all present and accounted for.

For us, it was a Christmas miracle that will not soon be forgotten.