My husband was trying to push the car and nothing was happening. I thought, maybe I should help.  Surely my weight would help send the car back up on the driveway.  I ran back inside and slipped some old shoes on and ran back out, hoping the neighbors were not looking out their windows.  I don’t normally go outside looking like that.  It was raining pretty hard and it was fairly chilly out and I thought maybe I should have grabbed a coat.  Oh well.  At that point my husband went in to change his clothes and shoes and I wondered why.

“Let’s just all pitch in and help push and get this car out of the yard” I ordered.  It shouldn’t be that hard, right? Anyway, while my husband was inside changing, I decided to get a shovel and start shoveling gravel from a pile next to the house and tossing it under the wheels that were stuck.  I’m so smart.  We’ll have this thing out of here in no time!  My husband came back out.  He told our oldest son, who had been sitting in the warm, dry car, to “push on the gas when I tell you to”.  My husband hunkered down on the front end of the car to push, so I did the same.   My husband yelled “go!” and I immediately knew why my husband went inside and changed.  As my son pretty well pushed the gas peddle to the floor I was showered with an enormous amount of mud and muck.

My husband yelled “stop!” and was smart enough not to look at me.  He quickly turned away to grab the shovel and continue putting gravel under the tires.  I just stood there looking down the front of myself.  I was, to say the least, covered in mud from my ankles to the top of my head.  The only clean part of me were my feet and that’s because I was standing in water up to my ankles.  My hair and clothes were soaked.  I had mud in my eyes, and mud in my mouth.  I even had mud in my ear!  While I was standing there in shock, I guess my husband and younger son got enough gravel under the tires because the car was finally back on the driveway.  I was starting to come back to myself when I began to feel my own anger rising.  Then I needed monitoring because I was going to let that kid have it!

My son put the car in park, shut it off, and hopped out of the car, all happy and stuff.  He took one look at me and started to laugh.  My husband quickly said one word, “Don’t”.  This was the one time my son listened to his dad and that was really fortunate for him.  My husband handed him the shovel to repair the ruts in the yard and still without looking at me, told me to go on inside.  I turned to go, praying that the neighbors were not looking out their windows.  As I reached to open the front door, I saw mud actually drip off my sleeve onto the porch.  I stepped inside intending to head straight for the shower, but instead I was met by my two daughters.  They stood there wide eyed with their mouths gaping open for a few seconds before they both burst out laughing.  After all, I don’t think they have ever saw their mother covered in mud.

What a treat!  With a straight face, I asked one of my daughters to please go and get me some clean clothes from the bedroom and while I headed for the bathroom . Shutting the door I began to peel off my wet muddy clothes.  As I turned to get in the shower, I got a glimpse of myself in the mirror, my face and hair splattered with mud.  I began to snicker.  I did look quite comical.  Me, who always always has every hair in place and dressed just so.  It was hard take myself too seriously looking like that.  Maybe that was a good thing.  I turned on the hot water, stepped under the shower and watched the mud go down the drain.  What a night this was turning out to be.  Not what I would call a typical Christmas Eve, but still okay.  However, after my shower I was still a little upset.  My oldest son was in the dog house for a few minutes, but everything was quickly getting back to normal.

Still, nobody dared say a word about what happened.  After those of us who “unstuck” the car were all cleaned up we were sitting in the living room.  My son ventured into the room and came to where we were.  We all just looked at each other for a good minute and then started laughing ‘till we cried. 

I’m pretty sure we will remember this Christmas Eve for the rest of our lives!