My Family Christmas consisted of 3 stops at Kwik Trip and opening gifts in the car.
So the weather in the northern midwest is bad, which meant my brother and I didn't get to drive out to Minnesota until Christmas Day. In case anyone is curious, there is exactly NOTHING open on Christmas Day.
What? you say, convinced that I am wrong. Surely there must be a McDonald's or Perkins open SOMEWHERE.
No. There is nothing. At least, going from Chicago, IL to southern Minnesota, there is nothing. Maybe in those crazy urban centers, there are places open to go eat, but in small-town Wisconsin/Minnesota? Yeeeah. Not so much.
So my family met up at Kwik Trip (1!), where we exchanged Christmas gifts and transferred my bags over to my parents' pick-up truck. (In case anyone was wondering just how country I really am.) If my experience there had to be captured in one moment, it would be that second of awkward silence after everyone finished opening their gifts, crammed in the car, just before my brother sang the opening line from, "So this is Christmas".
After that delightfully classic moment, we said goodbye to my brother, who has to work tomorrow and didn't really want to drive 8 hours just to turn around the next day and do it again. After fruitlessly searching for about a half hour, my parents and I stopped at another Kwik Trip (2!) to get some food. I'm really thrilled that sometime in the last five years Kwik Trip had decided that it was going to start stocking "healthy" food (it's a wacky concept, but they seem to make it work), so I was able to eat pretty well. After driving forever, we stopped at yet another Kwik Trip (3!) for a bathroom break before finally making it home.
This is the American dream. Except for the part where McDonald's wasn't open. And I don't even like McDonald's. =)
My brother's assessment was probably the best anyone in the family could have come up with, though: "I just experienced my first Tomah, Wisconsin Christmas today. Not awful, but never again."
Truer words, dear brother.
What? you say, convinced that I am wrong. Surely there must be a McDonald's or Perkins open SOMEWHERE.
No. There is nothing. At least, going from Chicago, IL to southern Minnesota, there is nothing. Maybe in those crazy urban centers, there are places open to go eat, but in small-town Wisconsin/Minnesota? Yeeeah. Not so much.
So my family met up at Kwik Trip (1!), where we exchanged Christmas gifts and transferred my bags over to my parents' pick-up truck. (In case anyone was wondering just how country I really am.) If my experience there had to be captured in one moment, it would be that second of awkward silence after everyone finished opening their gifts, crammed in the car, just before my brother sang the opening line from, "So this is Christmas".
After that delightfully classic moment, we said goodbye to my brother, who has to work tomorrow and didn't really want to drive 8 hours just to turn around the next day and do it again. After fruitlessly searching for about a half hour, my parents and I stopped at another Kwik Trip (2!) to get some food. I'm really thrilled that sometime in the last five years Kwik Trip had decided that it was going to start stocking "healthy" food (it's a wacky concept, but they seem to make it work), so I was able to eat pretty well. After driving forever, we stopped at yet another Kwik Trip (3!) for a bathroom break before finally making it home.
This is the American dream. Except for the part where McDonald's wasn't open. And I don't even like McDonald's. =)
My brother's assessment was probably the best anyone in the family could have come up with, though: "I just experienced my first Tomah, Wisconsin Christmas today. Not awful, but never again."
Truer words, dear brother.