The holidays are over, so it's time for all of us to concentrate on work, now! New Year's Eve was great, and Christmas is always a lot of fun in the Rooney household.

Three of our four children traveled to New York a couple of days before the 25th. We all converged at our home in upstate New York in preparation for the big day.

I enjoyed having my kids and grandchildren around, and now that I have two great-grandchildren, Christmas seemed even more joyous.

Who would have imagined that the weather would ruin Christmas for so many people around the world.

We didn't fare so well ourselves. The heat went out on Christmas Day. Then we decided to leave due to the storm that blanketed half of the country on Sunday. We heard the blizzard was coming, so we packed up all of the leftover food and unwrapped presents and children and got out of the area as quickly as possible. (Let's see, I got an electric shaver, two ties, 10 1-pound bags of coffee, and somebody made me a fruitcake.)

Two of my daughters had to drive over 200 miles to get home, and my oldest daughter had to postpone her trip back to London because her flight was cancelled on Monday, the 27th. She was finally able to fly home on Saturday, Jan. 1. Her husband was pretty unhappy with the change but he understood that it was out of her control. My daughter's husband also tried to fly to New York the week before Christmas, but wasn't able to because his flight was cancelled three times due to a snowstorm that crippled London and many places in Europe.

Our son and daughter-in-law and their daughters decided to stay in Los Angeles for Christmas. That turned out to be a sensible decision because there were floods and problems with all the rain that fell on Southern California.

As with so many other Americans whose vacations were disrupted because of the weather, we made the best of the situation. Of course, lots of people were not so lucky. We can all remember the pictures in the newspapers and on television of families stranded at airports around the country.

Finally, we arrived back in New York City after a hair-raising 10-hour drive down the New York State Thruway in a big 4-wheel-drive vehicle we had rented. My daughters arrived back in Boston and Washington after many hours of driving. Daughter Ellen stayed in New York City and watched as New Yorkers went about dealing with all the snow that had fallen.

I know I've mentioned this before, but I love Christmas. It's my favorite holiday. However, this was a Christmas to remember.

I think next year I'm going to ask the family if they want to have a pre-Christmas celebration in July, when there will be very little threat of a snowstorm. Instead of skiing, we could go boating or play tennis.

 

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(Write to Andy Rooney at Tribune Media Services, 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, NY 14207, or via email at aarooney5@yahoo.com)

(c) 2010 Andy Rooney

About Andy Rooney

Andy Rooney born January 14th, 1919 is a writer, humorist, radio and television personality.

Rooney became most famous as a humorist and political commentator with his weekly broadcast on the CBS News Program "60 Minutes" since 1978.