It's not often that we find ourselves in a Verley-adventure during Christmas.  But then, this was not our typical Verley Christmas either.

Traditionally, we have always spent the Christmas holiday at home in Phoenix, with our family.  On Christmas Eve, we (John and Mary and I, along with Bill and Erika) attend the Children's Service at the Casa de Christo Lutheran Church, near 64th Street and Bell Road, where we watch a fun-filled puppet show about the birth of Christ; toward the end of the service, Pastor Andy Garman does "Kid Talk", where he invites all of the children of the congregation to join him at the altar for a special Christmas message.  (Mary always looks forward to this part of the service.)

After the short and sweet service, the five of us then meet up with the Guckenburgs and my Dad at someone's house, where we exchange gifts and eat a light meal.  Once the wrapping paper has been cleaned up, though, we return home to put Mary to bed, with visions of sugar plums dancing in her head and hopes that Santa Claus will be coming to leave gifts under the tree.

On Christmas morning, John and I are usually up at the crack of dawn, waiting for Mary to wake up to see what surprises Santa Claus has left for her.  (We typically have to wake Mary up, because she's a heavy sleeper and would sleep until 9:00 a.m., if we let her...and, on Christmas morning, we're much too impatient to let her sleep that late!)  We spend the morning unwrapping gifts and playing with our new things; then, during the afternoon, we get together with the rest of the family and have Christmas dinner.

All in all, a very tame - albeit chaotic - Christmas holiday.

This year, however, we would not be having our traditional Christmas gathering with the extended family.  Bill and Erika would be in South Carolina, spending the holidays with Omi and Opa and Lotte and Richard; the Guckenburgs, in turn, announced that they were driving to Minnesota to spend Christmas with Danny's parents; and my Dad decided to spend Christmas in Tucson, visiting his brother Gene and his extended family at my cousin Margaret's house.  That meant that it would just be the three of us for Christmas...

So we decided to buck tradition altogether and spend the Christmas holiday in Overgaard, at the Gaard-Chak!  After all, we had a four-day weekend to enjoy, without family obligations, and we might even have a white Christmas to boot.  Why not?

To spend Christmas in Overgaard, we had a lot of logistics to sort out ahead of time.  Not only would we have to pack all of our clothes, but we would also have to get all of our gifts to the cabin as well.  One dilemma that we faced was getting everything packed without prying eyes catching a glimpse of unwrapped Christmas gifts.  I inadvertently solved that problem when I scheduled a dentist appointment for Mary on Christmas Eve morning; true, it was the only time that her dentist could squeeze her in for an overdue cleaning, but it gave John the time that he needed to get all of those gifts packed in the pod.

In addition to all of the gifts, we also had to pack enough food for four days.  Although there are grocery stores in Overgaard, we had to plan as though there would be nothing open, because that was certainly a possibility.  We even had to pack basic staples, such as coffee, because Erika had thrown everything out prior to leaving for South Carolina. 

One of the most important details that we had to address was the Christmas tree: what were we going to do for a tree?  At our home in Phoenix, we had a nice, seven-foot Noble fir that we had purchased at Home Depot, but we certainly didn't want to bring that up to Overgaard with us.  True, we could have gone into the forest and cut one, but we didn't apply for a permit before the deadline.  So what could we do?

The answer was simple: we would use The Stick.  The Stick is an old piece of ironwood that John found in the desert near Sundad, many years ago, before we met.  It was such an interesting piece of wood that he brought it home and planted it in a pot of dirt and called it his "house plant". 

One Christmas, Omi and Opa came to Phoenix and John invited them to his apartment for Christmas dinner.  Since he did not have a Christmas tree, his mother offered to get one for him, but he refused the offer.  Later that night, as he pondered the lack of a tree, his conscience got the best of him; he knew that it would make his mother happy if he had a tree...but where was he going to get a Christmas tree at midnight on Christmas Eve?  Then, he eyed the stick, sitting there in the pot of dirt, and a wonderfully creative idea struck him.  By the time his grandparents showed up for dinner on Christmas Day, he had decorated the stick with lights, garland, and ornaments, much to his mother's delight.  For the next few years to follow, until our first Christmas together, that was John's Christmas tree.  Together, we continued to decorate The Stick until the year that Mary was born; by then, the tradition had been pushed aside to make way for new ones.  The Stick, however, was tucked away safely in the backyard...just waiting for such an opportunity to become a Christmas tree once again.  And this was that perfect chance to bring it back!

So, on Christmas Eve morning, while Mary and I were at the dentist, John crammed all of these things - and the sled and the snowshoes, too - into the 4Runner and the pod.  It took some shuffling and reshuffling, but in the end, he managed to get everything packed.  And as soon as Mary and I returned from the dentist, at 8:30 a.m., we all piled into the 4Runner and started on our journey to Overgaard.

Our drive to Overgaard was uneventful but very fun.  John had brought along the iLive portable stereo, into which he had inserted his iPhone and began playing a mix of various holiday tunes that he had downloaded from iTunes - Andy Williams, Jeff Dunham, Bob and Doug Mackenzie, Dr. Demento, the Muppets, Vince Guaraldi, and so on.  We all sang along and had a great laugh; it really got us into the holiday spirit.

As we drew closer to Payson, we saw the first signs of winter: there was still snow in the Mazatzals and even a light dusting on Mount Ord.  There was even still snow on the ground in the town of Payson, left over from the last winter storm that had blown through the state only two days earlier.  We were excited to see it and even had our first snowball fight in the Safeway parking lot, when we stopped to pick up a bag of carrots for Santa's reindeer (we had forgotten to pack those).

The snow was much thicker on SR 260, east of Payson, and it became thicker and thicker the higher we went.  Near Forest Lakes - the highest point on the road - the snow was several feet thick, and the roads were still icy enough that we had to drive with caution.  Along the way, we passed by a very bad accident, where it appeared that one vehicle had skidded off of the icy road and wrapped itself around a tree; all the more reason to be cautious.

At 11:30 a.m., we finally arrived in the community of Heber-Overgaard.  Though lower in elevation than Forest Lakes, Heber-Overgaard was just as snow-covered and icy.  Many of the side streets had been plowed, but there were still large patches of ice on them - and, with the temperature below freezing, there was no chance that it was going to melt.  It was a whopping 30° outside, and that was as warm as it was going to get!

Instead of going straight to the cabin, John decided to drive around town to all of the different churches to see if they had their Christmas Eve service times posted outside.  Even though we were out of town, we still wanted to go to a service, as long as it was early enough in the evening.  What we discovered was that, only one church had its times posted...and that was for a 7:00 p.m. service.  A bit late for us.

We arrived at the Gaard-Chak just before noon and immediately began to unload: gifts, food, decorations, and clothes.  With all three of us working, it took us several trips each.  Once everything was inside, we then turned on the heat and the water...only to discover that the pipes were frozen!  This was not a good sign; the last time that we couldn't get the water on, we had to abort our trip and go home.  Since we were already committed to staying there for Christmas, we could not have a repeat of that trip!

So, while we waited for the water pipes to thaw, we busied ourselves with decorating the Gaard-Chak for Christmas.  While John prepared his stick, I hung our stockings by the roaring fireplace and decorated the mantle.

To dress up the stick as a Christmas tree, John planted it in a pot of dirt. (Mary spilled the dirt and had to vacuum it up!) Then he strung Christmas lights from top to bottom, creating a cylindrical shape.  Once the lights were secured, he then wrapped garland around them.  Finally, he and Mary hung shiny red balls from the garland and the lights.  We then put the stick on an end table scattered our wrapped Christmas gifts all around it. The result: one shiny Sundad-stick Christmas Tree! 

By the time we were finished decorating and unpacking and organizing, we still did not have water.  Two hours had passed; we thought for sure that they would have thawed out by then!  John placed several phone calls to his father to try to diagnose the problem, and he eventually figured out that it was the pipe that came up from the ground and into the house that was frozen.  Bill recommended that we put the space heater outside next to the metal pipe, to see if that would do the trick.  Meanwhile, John went to Ace Hardware to buy a propane torch to speed it along.

Of course, just after he left, the water started running!  The space heater had done the trick and melted the ice in the flex piping, giving us running water.  I tried to call John to tell him the good news...only to discover that he had left his phone sitting on the kitchen counter.  D'oh!  It was just as well, though, because that propane torch would come in handy over the next few days...

Now that we had water and all was good in the world again, we decided to do some exploring, to kill time before nightfall.  Our drive took us down Forest Road 86 - otherwise known as Black Canyon Road, or "A Journey Through Time".  We have explored this road in the past, most recently during Super Bowl weekend, when we did some geocaching in the area - so, we were familiar with the road.

As we started down Black Canyon Road, we were surprised to find that it had been plowed; although we anticipated finding many of the side roads plowed, we did not expect to see any of the unpaved, forest roads as such.  I think that John had been hoping to get to drive on a snow-covered road, because he took a detour on the first unplowed road he could find - FR 160 - to see how far he could go.  Someone had already driven down this road before us; along the way, there were tire tracks in the snow, and that helped us follow the road.  After a half of a mile, though, John decided that we had gone far enough and turned around to head back to the main road; the snow was getting too thick, and he didn't want to get us stuck out there.

Though FR 86 had been plowed, it was still very icy, much like SR 260 had been near Forest Lakes.  Several times along the way, John demonstrated for us just how slick the road was by performing controlled skids and slamming on his brakes.  Mary thought it was hilarious; I, on the other hand, thought he was a lunatic!  But then, I don't do slippery...

It was already after 4:00 p.m. when we returned to Overgaard; that meant that it was time to start thinking about dinner.  Neither one of us wanted to cook, so we drove through town, looking to see if any of the restaurants were open for business.  The only place that was open was The Cabin - Bill and Erika's favorite bar - and we certainly didn't want to have bar food for our Christmas Eve dinner.  In the end, we decided to return to the Gaard-Chak and dine on hot chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches: warm, comfort food on a cold winter's night.

Our Christmas Eve celebration was peaceful and quiet.  After dinner, we sat down by the roaring fireplace and watched The Santa Clause (starring Tim Allen) then listened to more Christmas tunes on John's iPhone.  Around 7:00 p.m., we decided to open up a bottle of wine; and, with that, John announced that it was time to open up the first Christmas gift.  He had brought along a nice Bordeaux to enjoy, but we simply could not pour the wine without first opening the gift that went with it: a vinturi, which we had first seen in Temecula during the last President's Club trip.  Naturally, it was only a matter of time before we acquired one for ourselves.

We each opened two gifts from each other that night, as well as the gifts from Bill and Erika, which had arrived in the mail a few days before Christmas.  Mary and I gave each other pink Snuggies, and John gave me a pair of warm, down boots that I could use as camp shoes when backpacking.  The highlight, though, was when Mary opened the package from Erika, which contained a Webkinz - a llama, which she named Carl, after Jimmy Neutron's llama-loving best friend.

After the gifts had been opened, we then read the traditional Christmas stories. I first read The Night Before Christmas, and then Mary read How the Grinch Stole Christmas. 

At 8:30, it was time for Mary to go to bed - but first, she had to set out milk and cookies for Santa Claus and carrots for the reindeer.  She then crawled into bed and was asleep within minutes, which surprised us because she normally can't fall asleep on Christmas Eve!  We were grateful, though, because it gave Santa plenty of time to do his job...

John and I also fell right to sleep that night. I could barely keep my eyes open and slipped into a nice, deep sleep...but was jolted into wakefulness by a very excited voice: "MOM! DAD! SANTA CAME!"

It was 1:00 a.m.!

We put Mary back to bed, explaining to her that it was still way too early for her to be up.  She reluctantly fell back to sleep but awoke again at 3:00 - and then at 4:00 - wondering if it was time to get up.  After putting her back to bed for the last time, John remarked, "So much for us having to wake her up on Christmas morning!"

Shortly after 5:00 a.m., John and I awoke and decided that it was time to start the day.  Since Mary was still asleep, I went straight for the kitchen so that I could start my coffee...but when I turned on the tap to fill the carafe with water, I was in for quite the surprise: the pipes were frozen again!

Before John could react, Mary appeared in the living room and asked if it was finally time to get up.  "YES!" we told her, and with that, we all congregated under the Christmas stick to see what Santa had brought for us. 

Santa had brought us all sorts of fun things: DVD's and games for all of us, new backpacking headlamps for me and Mary, new hiking boots for Mary, Windows 7 for me, and two more Webkinz for Mary - a mountain goat and a walrus.  We also opened our stockings to see what Santa had left in there for us.  Mary received the movie Up! on DVD; I got Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince; and John got tickets to see Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in concert, in April in Prescott.

Before we could dive into the rest of the gifts, though, John needed to get the water running, so that we could have breakfast - and I could have coffee.  Wearing his pajamas, hiking boots, and winter jacket, John went outside - where it was 0° - and used the propane torch to melt the ice in the water pipes.  He came back inside five minutes later to see if it had worked, but there still wasn't water coming from the faucet.  Frustrated, he picked up the propane torch to go back outside...and then, the first Christmas miracle took place: the water began to run again!

Now that we had water, it was time to make a decision: gifts or breakfast?  The answer was obvious: gifts, of course! Mary just wasn't going to wait that long.  For the next hour, we opened all of the gifts that we had given to each other.  Among those gifts, there was a new external hard drive and Photoshop Elements for me; an iPod Nano and lots of new clothes for Mary; and a new GPS and new electronic topographical maps for John.  True, we already had a nice GPS - the Garmin Map 60, which I had given to John for his 40th birthday - but this was an upgrade: the Garmin Oregon 300, with touch-screen technology and better accuracy.  It is going to be another great tool to use in our outdoor adventures.

Having opened all of the gifts and cleaned up the aftermath and consumed a delicious breakfast, it was time to get out of the house and enjoy the white Christmas.  Since it was still very cold outside - only 16° at 10:00 a.m. - we made sure to bundle up in several layers, including snow pants and heavy winter coats.  Then, once we were all ready, we set out to have a Christmas Day adventure...

...and we had no idea at the time what an adventure it was going to be...

As soon as we left the cabin, we went looking for a place to go sledding.  We remembered seeing a bunch of families sledding on a hill next to one of the real estate office not far from the house, so we decided to go check it out.  When we arrived, we found that we were the only ones there and took advantage of a full hour of unobstructed sledding.  Though the hill was a little bumpier than Mary would have liked, she had a wonderful time sliding down the snow pack, giggling all the way.  John, too, got into the act and made several runs down the hill; he fell out of the sled a couple of times, much to our amusement. 

Once we were tired of sledding, I suggested that we go snowshoeing.  Knowing that Black Canyon Road was plowed, we decided to go there, to find the perfect place to go for a walk in the snow.

All along the first eight miles of Black Canyon Road, there were lots of places where we could have pulled off to go snowshoeing; there were several large meadows, even a couple of trails, but John wasn't satisfied with any of those spots, so he kept driving, deeper and deeper into the forest.  Surprisingly, Black Canyon Road was plowed, even though we were nearly eight miles from town.  We soon discovered that there was a reason for that; just past mile marker eight, we found that there were houses and ranches out there in the forest - and we had no idea that they were there!

At mile marker eight, we came to a T-intersection. To the left, there was a sign warning that the road was primitive and should only be attempted in a high-clearance vehicle; to the right, the road was still plowed, and there was a sign indicating that we were only four miles from Black Canyon Lake.

"Hey!" John said.  "That would be a perfect place to go snowshoeing!"

It seemed like a good idea at the time; I mean, earlier in the year, we had snow-shoed to Willow Springs Lake, while it was snowing, and had even ventured out onto the frozen lake.  It was one of our more enjoyable snowshoeing adventures.  The idea of repeating a trip like that was too good to pass up; so we decided to go for it.

As we passed the last of the houses - a large cabin at which several cars were parked - we discovered that the road was no longer plowed; there were, however, tire tracks in the snow, indicating that someone had driven through the snow before us.  Seeing that, John figured that, if someone else had made it there, we could, too...right?  After all, we had four-wheel drive...

Just past mile-marker nine, the snow started to get much thicker, and it wasn't long before John was reconsidering our destination.  Snowshoeing on Black Canyon Lake may have sounded like a fun idea, but not if it meant putting ourselves in danger to get there.  With that in mind, John began to look for a place to turn around.

A bit further up the road, we found what appeared to be a large pullout on the left side of the road, and John decided to use it to try to turn around...and in doing so, we ended up getting stuck in the snow.  Having had lots of experience getting stuck in non-four-wheel-drive vehicles, we didn't pay it any mind and set about to try to get ourselves unstuck. 

An hour later, we were still stuck in the snow.  We had tried a variety of techniques to try to get the 4Runner out of the snow, but none of them worked.  First, we tried gunning the engine while one of us pushed, but the truck was just too big for one person to push.  Next, we tried digging out the tires with the only tool at our disposal - a blunt axe - but it just wasn't enough to dig through the ice that had formed under the tires.  After that, we tried using the floor mat from the back of the 4Runner, in hopes that it would give one of the tires some traction; but all that happened was, the tire spun so fast that the mat went flying through the air, landing cloth-side down in the snow.  It wasn't long before the fibers were so crusted with ice that it wasn't going to do any good.  Finally, John tried "rocking" the 4Runner, with one foot on the accelerator and another in the snow, in hopes of shaking it free.  That worked to an extent...until the 4Runner began to slip sideways.  In the end, the tires were buried so deep in the snow that we had no hope of getting ourselves out without help.

"Well," I said, "we know that there is a house about a mile from here, and there are people home.  Maybe we can get some help from them?"

At that point, it was the only option that we had; we had a very weak cell signal and no tools, and there was no chance that anyone was going to happen along to rescue us.  The only way we were going to get out of there was to go looking for help.  So, we strapped on our snowshoes, locked up the 4Runner, and started hiking down the road, towards the closest house.

Of course, It wasn't exactly how we wanted to go snowshoeing...

It took us just under thirty minutes to hike to the house.  As we approached the point where the road was plowed again, I checked my phone to see what time it was and noticed that I had a cell signal.  John suggested that, instead of bothering the residents on Christmas Day, we should try calling AAA to send a tow truck, to get a professional with the proper gear to help us out.  We knew that, being on an unpaved - and unplowed - road, we were going to have to pay dearly for the service, and we were fully prepared to do so.

While I was on the phone with the AAA dispatcher, the owner of the house came out to see if we were okay.  He had seen us driving in and had a feeling that there was a problem.  When John told him what was wrong, he said that he wouldn't be able to pull us out, but was fully prepared to help us out in any other way: food, water, a bathroom, whatever.  A few minutes later, the lady of the house emerged, carrying a pitcher of water and a couple of cups.  "You look like you could use something to drink," she said, pouring us each a glass. 

She lingered outside for a bit, talking to us and listening to our story.  About ten minutes later - about twenty minutes after we had placed our call to AAA - a truck approached.  John thought at first that it was the tow truck, but that hope was quickly quashed when the lady said, "Oh, here comes my brother!"

Her brother, who runs the Seibert Cattle Company in the White Mountains, had just arrived for Christmas dinner, driving his half-tone truck.  As soon as he arrived, his sister told him about our troubles, and he immediately said, "Come on, I'll pull you out!"

"Really?"  We were so grateful to hear that!  We had already waited twenty minutes for AAA and had a feeling that it was going to be several more hours before they showed up. 

Just as John was preparing to leave with him, my phone rang; it was the AAA dispatcher, calling us back with the number of a tow truck driver in Show Low.  I took down the name and number in case we needed it, but at that point, I had a good feeling that we were about to see our second Christmas miracle of the day.

We all climbed into the man's truck, and he drove us back up the road, to the place where the 4Runner was stuck in the snow.  Using a shovel, he started by digging away at the ice around all four of the tires, while John tried to drive forward.  After about five or ten minutes, the truck finally had enough traction to roll free, and John drove it back onto the road and into the tire tracks that we had been following!

But we weren't out of the woods yet.  We still had to turn ourselves around...and, in doing so, John got the 4Runner stuck again.  Using the shovel again, the man quickly dug out the tires; he then attached a tow rope to the 4Runner and used his own truck to yank the 4Runner free.  At long last, the 4Runner was finally turned around and out of the snow!

And yet, we still weren't out of the woods.  The man still had to turn his own vehicle around.  He tried backing down the road, but that only caused him to slip and slide down the icy road; his best bet was to turn around.  In doing so, he got himself stuck!  John hopped out of the 4Runner and went to help him - after all, he had helped us - but the man would not take his help.  Quickly, he dug himself out of the snow, and in just a few minutes, he was back on the road again.

Slowly and cautiously, we drove the 4Runner back down FR 86; and when we finally reached the place where the road was plowed, we cheered.  We stopped there long enough to thank our rescuer - we even paid him for his troubles - then, with our snowshoes and sled stowed, we drove back towards Overgaard without looking back.

We finally made it back to the cabin around 3:00 p.m., hungry and exhausted from our ordeal.  Along the way, we stopped at the Circle K to buy a light snack that would hold us until dinnertime; we took that home with us and ate in front of the TV, while we watched Up.  At that point, we were done with Christmas snow; we were in for the rest of the day.  Around 6:00 p.m., we had a wonderful Christmas dinner that consisted of a pork roast, potatoes, and veggies, complemented with another Bordeaux.  After dinner, we settled in next to the warm fireplace until bedtime...

The next morning, we slept in.  John and I slept until 7:30; Mary slept until 9:00.  Ordinarily, sleeping that late would put a damper on our day; but we really didn't have any plans or any place that we needed to be.  Our only obligation for the day was to do some work around the cabin; an arm of a juniper tree had blown over during the vicious wind storm in early December, and we needed to cut it down.  We also wanted to buy some pipe wrap, in hopes of preventing the pipes from freezing again, and some basic staples for cabin.

First: the tree.  The tree in question was an old juniper tree that had split off into four arms.  On December 7, one of those arms had fallen over; so Rick, the next door neighbor, called Erika to inform her about it, stating that she needed to do something about it right away because it was on the street.  Erika panicked and immediately called Janice to see if she could go up to Overgaard to deal with it; however, she and Danny were busy packing for their trip to Minnesota and couldn't go.  So Erika insisted on calling John, but Bill stopped her, stating that John couldn't go but wouldn't tell her why.  After they argued for a while, he finally told her that it was because John was flying out to South Carolina to surprise her and Omi and Opa on December 12, during a stopover on a business trip.  The tree could wait.

And it was a good thing that we waited; Rick had made a mountain out of a molehill.  The damage done by the tree was minimal, and it wasn't even close to the street.  As soon as we saw it, we agreed that we would have ticked if we had driven all the way to Overgaard just for that!

Around 10:00 a.m., John fired up the chainsaw and went to work on cutting down the segment of juniper tree that had blown over onto the fence.  As he cut away the pieces, Mary and I picked them up and carried them over to the wood pile to dry out.  The job took about one hour to complete; it wouldn't have taken that long, if the chain hadn't kept slipping on the chainsaw!

Once that job was done, we were off to Ace Hardware to buy pipe wrap; then, we went to the dollar store to buy supplies for the cabin.  That didn't take very long either; when all was said and done, we were faced with an entire afternoon with nothing to do.  What to do, what to do...

Rather than sit at the cabin and do nothing, we decided to spend the afternoon taking a scenic drive.  This would be a good way to test our new GPS; we also hoped to find a place to go sledding...as long as it didn't involve driving on any unplowed roads.

Our scenic drive took us north on SR 277, to Snowflake and Taylor.  Along the way, Mary asked us if she had ever been there before, and we reminded her that we had once met up with John and Jan there and introduced them to the fun of geocaching.  Before that, we had driven there with Bill and Erika during Thanksgiving weekend in 2006.  "Oh yeah!" she exclaimed. 

As we drove further north, away from Heber-Overgaard, we noticed that there was less and less snow on the landscape; this didn't look promising for sledding and snowshoeing, so we didn't stop.  We did, however, test the accuracy of the new GPS and found it to be incredibly accurate; as we approached the intersection of state routes 277 and 77, the GPS put us exactly in the center of Snowflake!

In Snowflake, we turned right onto SR 77 and drove south through Taylor; then, we continued on towards Show Low.  Along the way, we started to see more and more snow on the ground, but there just weren't any good sledding hills, so we kept going.

Once we were in Show Low, we stopped briefly, just to get gas and use the facilities; then, we kept going through town, as we had to intention of going sledding within the city limits.  Along the way, traffic slowed to a crawl as several wild horses came running down the street.

After passing through Show Low, we turned onto SR 260 and started back towards Heber-Overgaard.  En route, we took a short detour on Pinedale Road, which took us through the community of Pinedale and into the National Forest.  Pinedale Road was paved; some of the side roads were not; and after what happened the day before, we were getting a little gun-shy about driving through the snow.

A few miles in, we finally found a little sledding hill, where we stopped to play for a few minutes.  The sledding hill wasn't very good - in fact, it wasn't steep enough to build up any sort of speed - but John and Mary had a fun time towing each other down the hill.

It was getting late in the day, so after we were done sledding, we packed up our gear and headed back into town.  We arrived back at the cabin around 4:30 p.m., at which time, we started thinking about dinner.  Although we could have cooked dinner at the cabin, we decided instead to go eat out and went to the Wild Women Grille at the Bison Ranch.  After dinner, we returned to the cabin and settled in for the night, watching movies and staying warm by the fireplace.

The next morning, it was time to go.  Although we had planned to leave the cabin later in the day, so that we could enjoy at least another half of a day in Overgaard, we decided instead to clean up early and try to get home by lunchtime.  That would give us plenty of time to get organized at home before we had to return to work on Monday - and of course, it would give Mary time to go and play with Zoey!

We were very efficient at getting the cabin cleaned and winterized; considering the mess that we had made while we were there, what with all of the wrapping paper and gifts scattered about, we thought for sure that it would take us most of the morning to get it all picked up.  In the end, it only took us about ninety minutes; we were done and packed by 9:00 a.m.

Our drive home was uneventful, and traffic on the Beeline Highway was surprisingly light.  As a result, we were back in town by lunchtime, just as we had planned.  We stopped for lunch at an Applebee's in Scottsdale; and at 1:30, we finally arrived at home.

And with that ended our Christmas adventure - an adventure that could have ended badly, but once again we lived to tell about it.  Despite that, it was still one of the best Christmas holidays ever!

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