It's Christmas Day!

[Jonas]

It’s Christmas Day, and the whole extended family has gathered at Grandma and Grandpa’s house for fun, fellowship, Grandpa’s famous (or notorious) rum punch, and that huge Christmas dinner that Grandma cooks every year! Grandma and Grandpa live in a small house in a medium sized town, about 100km from your home, so you, your spouse, and your three children left your home about 9AM to get there on time. Your brother and two sisters are there with their spouses and children too, so the house is a bit cramped, but it’s all great fun, especially for the kids.

About 4PM, the adults are sitting around the living room chatting, and the younger children are playing with their new toys while the teenagers are busy playing cards when the electricity goes out. A quick look outside the front window shows that the whole town is dark. In fact, so is the neighboring town some 10km away. There are a few headlights moving on the highway, and candles and flashlights are slowly appearing in the houses of a few neighbors, but in general, everything is dark.

You and the family members all check your cell phones - no signals!

Your brother gets the idea to go out to the car and check the radio to hear if this electrical failure is being reported, but when he turns on the radio, all he and you can hear, up and down the dial, AM and FM, is static. No commercial station is broadcasting as far as you both can tell.

Grandma and Grandpa aren’t preppers, but probably have enough food in the house to feed the whole group for a day or two. Your siblings (all three families’ worth) are not only not preppers, but have kidded you loudly and repeatedly for feeling the need to stock extra food, so when they leave, they’ll probably be headed home to empty pantries and closed grocery shops.

So what is your course of action?

Do you load the family up and head for home? It’s dark, and since you do have to drive through a really bad area to reach the highway, there might be some less-than-savory characters out there looking to do a little late “Christmas shopping” with an impromptu roadblock and carjacking in the dark.

What about your less-than bright brother-in-law who confesses that he still has to buy gasoline to have enough to get home? With no electricity, the gas stations are all non-functional. Do you just leave, knowing that Grandma and Grandpa will be stuck with this guy, your sister, and their four teenage sons who eat like horses?

How about elderly Aunt Tilly, who lives in the retirement home down by the river? Are you going to let her go back to no electricity, and probably no heat or food as well?

Do you hunker in at Grandma and Grandpa’s until morning, crowded though it will be?

And if the electricity isn’t back on for “Boxing Day” (didn’t think a Texan knew that, did you), then what?

I’m really looking forward to seeing the replies for this little holiday scenario…