Sick kids, Holiday spirit, and Winter roads

After having to cancel our Thanksgiving travel plans when Ben got sick I was worried again in the week and a half before Christmas when Sam developed a fever of over 103 degrees that persisted for three days.  He didn't seem to be unusually uncomfortable due to the fever but did develop a cough that wracked his little body.  I called our family doctor only to find that her office was closed but they immediately scheduled us with another local doctor who got Sam in that same day.  He was diagnosed with bronchitis and given antibiotics to clear things up.  I was relieved that it was something that could easily be treated and also have the antibiotics finished up before we joined the rest of the Browders in Modesto for Christmas.
Ben finished up 2010 with a holiday program at his preschool on December 17th.  He was excited to have not only me, Brian, and Sam in attendance to hear his songs but also our neighbors, Steve and Jackie.  The boys and I spent the morning running the never-ending errands before school then Sam and I dropped Ben off and went to Brian's office for a quick gift-exchange/lunch.  Sam and I headed out to do just a couple more errands and were surprised by the amount of snow that had fallen throughout the morning.  I had noticed how slick the roads were but felt fairly confident in our all-wheel-drive Subaru.  All I had to do was shift into the sport-shift mode and shift to a lower gear to slow myself down.  We opted to come home to pick something up (at this point I don't even remember what it was now) and started down the steep driveway between our building and the adjacent building.  The next thing I knew, a minivan driven by a neighbor in the building next to ours was speeding up the driveway basically pushing me to the side.  My car began to slide and though I managed to avoid hitting the newly-sided building I found my front passenger side tire stuck in a couple feet of snow inside the concrete-edged flower bed.  And the neighbor in the van?  He just drove away without looking back!  I immediately turned off the car and ran over to Steve and Jackie's for help.  Sam sat patiently in the car buckled into his car seat.  With Steve and a builder who was working on our new pantry both pushing while I rocked the car we managed to get it out.  I thanked them both profusely and retrieved whatever it was that I had come home for in the first place.  Then we were off again to do one more thing before getting Brian and heading to the preschool for the program.  By the time I got to Brian's office I was still shaken and also worried as the check engine light was on in the car and we were slated to leave town in just a couple of days for Christmas. 

Ben's program was as cute as can be though I have no photos as I forgot to grab my camera in the excitement of the morning.  When we finished with the program I had Brian take over driving and we immediately went by our local automotive shop and had the mechanic reset our speed sensors that had been triggered when the tires were spinning.  I was happy to get home to finish packing up Christmas gifts and suitcases and stay off the roads until absolutely necessary.