Aaron and Clarissa's wedding was in American Fork, UT. Rebecca and Gabe took their finals early so we could fly from Atlanta to Salt Lake City on Thursday, Dec. 19. Paul was to drive to SLC and pick us up from the airport at 2:30 pm and we would start the festivities by having dinner at Clarissa's, attending the temple at 7:00 pm and then wedding fun on Friday. Well, that plan worked, kind of..Paul drove to Salt Lake City, we flew to LA and then things got interesting. We were told that all the people travelling to SLC could get off the plane because the flight had been cancelled. The SLC airport had closed for a time because of ice. We were to get information from the gate agent. Then the internet information started buzzing around: a plane had slid off the runway at SLC, and our plane had already been redirected to not Salt Lake. The line of perplexed travelers was not moving very fast and the gate agent looked a little stressed. We waited patiently (outwardly) while she got the boarding process going for the new destination. Then she took a second to speak into the microphone. "Those of you waiting to go to Salt Lake City, your bags are at baggage claim. I don't see you getting out of here until Sunday or Monday. Your best bet is to get on the internet and try to reschedule."
Umm, that was not very helpful considering my child was getting married on Friday. That's when I normally would have started freaking out, but for some reason I felt calm and strong and had perfect clarity. My baby was getting married the next day and I would be there. My two children and I gathered in a circle and prayed that good things would come of this day and we could make it safely to UT. I would simply rent a car and drive, and the thought occurred to me to take some people with me. I identified 2 females who were in line that I should invite. One was a beautiful student at the front of the unfortunates line. I introduced myself, told her I was renting a car and driving to UT and asked her if she would like to join us. She happily accepted the invitation. There was another woman who was clearly distraught at the frustrating circumstance. I made her the same invitation. She said she needed to talk to her son, who she was visiting because his wife had just had a new baby. Her son told her that it was a good option so we were on our way.
There we were, 3 Stokers trying to get to a wedding, 1 student trying to get home for Christmas and a Grandma trying to see her boy and her grand baby. It was a Christmas homecoming movie in the making. I realized this when we were driving on the 8 lane highway in SoCal singing along to the chorus of "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer." It was only made better when we realized we had a DVD player in the van, and I had some Christmas and Hallmark movies in my purse.
The car was filled with Christmas cheer. It was a blessing to have our new friends with us. Cute student girl was darling and had an I phone with GPS to help us get through LA. Brooklyn Grandma friend majorly contributed when it got about 10:00 pm and I was really tired. She chatted with me and told me about her family and kept me awake. And honestly, there was nothing better in this whole wide world than seeing these family members reunite at 1:00 am at a snowy Maverick gas station in Provo, UT, unless it was the Stoker reunion on wedding morning in Lindon, UT. Christmas season made.
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