Some things have to be seen to be believed

This leg of the trip was supposed to end in Idaho Falls, but bad weather in Wyoming forced a change of plans; we started on the southern route from Denver to Boise, and made it a little past Salt Lake City before everyone pooped out. We stopped at a Comfort Inn in Layton, Utah, and got a room and a pizza. By about 9:30 p.m. Maya, Ben, and Missy had all passed out, and I was still sort of tweaking from the copious amounts of caffeine and sugar that had fueled the last couple hundred miles of our trip, so I grabbed my laptop and headed down to the lobby. Hence, this blog post.

Anyhow, about half an hour after I came down, a crying woman came in and booked a room. I couldn't hear quite what transpired between her and the hotel desk clerk, but it clearly involved the Christmas tree that I was sitting next to. About ten minutes later, she came in from the parking lot with about half a dozen oversized shopping bags full of Christmas presents and set them under the tree. She looked over at me and asked if I was ready for some Christmas cheer; not knowing what to say, I replied that I was, and asked if I was going to be in anyone's way. A couple of minutes later, her three teenaged kids came in, and started laughing and protesting what was clearly going to be their Christmas celebration, a day early. I had to laugh at some of the comments ("Oh, look", pointing at me, "we even have guests over!") being made by the kids.

Anyhow, as I typed most of this up, they opened their presents by the tree, and then headed back up to their room. As best I could tell from the clerk's comments to a coworker, they'd left home nearby due to some sort of domestic disturbance (in-laws, perhaps?) and were trying to make the best of the situation. Once the kids got into the spirit, they seemed to have just as much fun as any family I'd ever been around on Christmas day, so though I don't know who they are, here's to a merry Christmas to this family over the next couple of days.