Our Christmas Eve Adventure!!!

I have told several people lately I was not in the Christmas spirit. I was starting to get into it yesterday afternoon. We decided to go to my parent's home on Christmas Eve this year. My spirits were lifted some by Christmas Eve afternoon. John was helping Mom with her laptop, in the office. The girls were doing something. I think they were watching TV, but I'm not positive. Dad and I were in the living room chatting, while I searched his Park Seed catalog for flowers and veggie seeds.

Then John and my Mom walked into the room, both with worried looks. I heard John say something about a man with a shotgun and a pistol in our yard. A what?! I was standing at that point right in front of their large living room window. I turned to look and there were two sheriff deputies with guns pulled crouching down in front of my mother's car...twelve feet from the front door and a lot less than that from the window. What does my Mom do?? She opens the door! Crazy woman!! I was fussing at her to close the door; okay, I was trying not to yell but I was loud for sure for her to be five feet from me. As soon as she opened the door, I saw the woman deputy shoo her several times. I finally (after three times of telling her) convinced my Mom to close the darn door! Then immediately I sent John with the girls to the back bedroom. This really could not be happening!! There they crouched for an hour, or more. Time stood still for quite awhile.

During this time we assessed the fact the road was blocked. We could see cars blocking the road in one direction, but not the other. We also knew there were two more deputies across the road in the between the trees on the hill. We also knew "our" deputies were looking across the street, but we didn't know which house: the preacher's house or the house next door. Nor did we know what was going on. I never thought I would fear for my children in a cross fire of bullets on Christmas Eve. I just wanted to know what was going happening.

Two Sheriff Deputies on Christmas Eve, leaning on Mom's car

After an hour, the male deputy left our yard the same as they had come in, just inches from the flowerbeds. He returned a little later with a coat, then left again. The woman officer then came to our door. She told us there was someone across the street barricaded in the house and armed. I asked which house. She told me and I said, "Not Archie." She replied, "Yes, Archie." (Mr. Archie is the preacher across the street that we have known since I was seven.) My Mom then replied something like, it isn't someone who lives there is it? The officer then informed us it was Archie was armed and dangerous. He was threatening anyone who came to the house. Are you kidding me?! Wow! I was so shocked I didn't even ask if his wife, Hazel, was alright. I hope she is. They did, within thirty minutes of that conversation, capture him alive. No officers were harmed from what we could tell as they all began to leave. Mr. Archie left on his own feet also.

Mr. Archie had (as my mother said) "gone crazy" a few years ago when he had a tumor on his brain. He had surgery and was fine. She is now worried another tumor may be there. I hope he and his family are safe tonight and he is getting the medical treatment he so greatly needs, and deserves.