The snow was coming down in great, wet flakes as I pulled into the garage. The forecast was for blizzard conditions over night with temperatures falling into the teens.

“Just perfect,” I mumbled, retrieving the bags of groceries from the back seat. “So damn perfect.”

I went through the door into the kitchen, slamming it behind me and plunking the bags on the counter. This was supposed to be the weekend for our big post-Christmas open house. We had done it since we got married and Frank and I loved every minute of the planning and having friends and neighbors in and out most of the day. We lived in the mountains of north Georgia and it was very rare that we got so much snow, but Mother Nature was determined to spoil our weekend.

“Frank! Have you seen the weather report? It’s going to be pretty awful by this time tomorrow!”

I yelled at him down the hallway, knowing he was probably hunched over his computer finishing up his end of year reports for our landscaping business. There wasn’t much actual landscaping going on up here until May but the bookkeeping was never ending.

I heard him sauntering down the hallway and he came into the kitchen and started helping me unpack the groceries. “Well, most of the fresh stuff will keep and we can freeze what is freezable. No real harm.”

“Except I was so looking forward to our regular thing.” I put my arms around his waist and began to sniffle. “It’s tradition. OUR tradition.”

He held me for a few minutes and let me get it out of my system. “How about a new tradition this year? How about one that involves just us?”

“You mean like a fire in the fireplace and good wine and cheese? Because I think we’ll be pretty much stuck here for a few days. There’s ice involved in this mess from what I understand.”

“Nope. What I have in mind involves absolutely NO ice except in a frozen margarita. Follow me, my lady.”

He took my hand and walked me back to his study, clicking on a site. “Voila!”

I stared at the screen, trying to make sense of what I was seeing and then yelped. “Are you SERIOUS? Bermuda?”

“Yup. When I heard the weather report I thought ‘why not’? We’ve been yakking about this for a couple of years and so I have made all he arrangements.” He looked at the time. “But scurry, scurry, little mouse because we have to be on the road to the airport in twenty minutes to make our flight.”

“I can’t get ready in…”

“Listen! Just grab enough to put in a carry on. We’ll pretty much live in bathing suits and shorts and we’ll buy what we need in Bermuda. We’ve had such a good year in the business and we need this vacation. Let’s make it a Great Adventure!”

I grabbed him around the neck and planted a big ol’ kiss on him. “Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

“You just did. Now move it, woman!”

And that’s how we ended up in Bermuda a few hours later, stretched out on beach chairs and sipping those frozen margaritas. Pure bliss.