The Ice Storm that made me CRAZY!!

On December 12th, at 6pm we were suppose to be at "The Ward Christmas Dinner". This is a Turkey Dinner that our church has been having for years now. Since I am the Ward Activities Chairperson at this time, I am in charge of it. It tends to take up quite a bit of my time. I shop for 6 20+ Turkeys, 90 Lbs of Potatoes, Stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, Vegetables, Paper Products etc. I have sign ups for people to cook the food, bring Pies, help decorate etc.. I delegate and have someone be in charge of the Musical Numbers and she had the program in order, from the children singing "Silent Night" to she and her Brother singing/playing to "The Little Drummer Boy". We were going to do something new this year and have "The Topsham Year in Review" Slide show that my friend Lisa was putting together. I make posters and this year I even made invitations. I absolutely LOVE planning it but to say the least I really neglect my family/house so I can make "The Ward Christmas Dinner" really special.
The Thursday night before the dinner, my friends Nataly, Aaron and Trish, their kids and my kids headed over to the church in a storm to decorate the Cultural Hall. 20 tables were all set up for us (Thank you Young Men). We set tables, made centerpieces, hung Twinkle Lights and Snowflakes, set up the stage area, even had a kids table ready for Snowman Ornament making!! It looked GREAT! Friday morning we woke up to NO POWER and about 2 inches of ICE on all the trees. I started calling families that were in charge of cooking to see if they had power. I couldn't get a hold of a couple but did find out that The Achuffs were one of my "Turkey" families that didn't have power. So around noon the kids and I got ready (by this time we had power at home) and zoomed up to their house ro pick up their Turkey so that I could bring it to the church to cook it there. We got to the church and low and behold there was NO POWER there. Our church is located in one of the largest towns in the Area but unfortunately doesn't sit on a Main Road, it's right in the middle of a Neighborhood of houses. My RS President was there rinsing her Turkey wanting to cook hers at the church too as she had no Power. The Smiths live right up the road from the church and they had POWER. So the easy solution was to put the Turkeys in Roasters and plug them in at their house, which we did. Of course we were counting that Power would be restored by Dinner time. 3:30pm came and still No Power, so the Bishop made the decision to postpone the dinner till Sat night. I called my sister in a panic- asking her to move her Sat night dinner time up 2 hours early, so that I could make it back to Topsham for the Dinner. She was able to do that! Saturday morning, I woke up and couldn't sleep, so I headed over to the church to check on things thinking of course there will be Power, there HAS to be power now!!! Well guess what???? still no Power, in fact I found a couple leaks in the ceiling happening! I called our Bishop and let him know. I called Central Maine Power and begged and pleaded for them to restore the Power ASAP to Pinewood Drive in Topsham. I got answers like, "We'll do the best we can, but we still have 120,000 places without power, Can you move your function to a different location?". On our way up to my sister's for dinner we got a call from my friend Nataly saying still no Power at the church and the Bishop is Canceling the Ward Dinner!!! That's right NO WARD DINNER this year!!! I was devastated, but in a way happy that we could actually relax at Betsey and David's and not have to rush back. All the food that was cooked was given away or eaten by Ward members, some families had small get togethers at their houses. Church was canceled Sunday as there still was no power until later in the day Sunday. I can't wait to hear the stories this Sunday! Monday evening Nataly and I and our kids went over to the church and disassembled the whole Cultural Hall. Left the Tables and Chairs for the Seminary Students to take down the next AM- thanks to their teacher Kim Bush!!! I still can't even believe it happened!!! At any rate everyone is safe and we all have Power now. John and I were talking and he reminded me that when it all comes down to it, all of this is just "Stuff" that helps us celebrate this wonderful time of year. I am over it, but if we lose Power again next year on the same weekend as the Ward Dinner, I think I'll need to be admitted to a Psychiatric unit (ha,ha,ha). (Thought I'd include some pictures of the Dark Cultural Hall so you could really see what it was like). PS A big THANK YOU to everyone who helped!!!