I "got" everything I wanted. And I also was able to "give" something
priceless.

I "got" good enough weather to fly my family from WI to MI Friday afternoon
(Christmas Eve) and I "got" good enough weather to fly them back early
Christmas morning. I "gave" them a Christmas with both sides of the family.

After waking up to -15F Friday morning, the wife and I worked until noon and
then prepared to depart as temps rose to -3F. The Aztec presented us with
another gift as the heater worked great at 9000 ft and -25F.

Lake effect clouds moved in below us as we left land behind and headed out
over Lake Mich. As we neared Grand Rapids, I tuned in their ATIS and it
advised that the lake effect clouds and 1000-2000 ft overcast to broken was
producing snow showers and visibilities of 1-2 miles. An instrument
approach would be needed to get into Hastings, and the only one they have
(VOR 12) would require us to circle to land into the 260 @15 Gusting to 25
knot winds using Rwy 30. We were IMC from 8000 down to 2000 where we broke
out ice free and entered a clear pocket surrounded by the snow showers. A
couple more miles and the runway popped into view. We circled and made a
real "greaser" landing on the snow/ice covered runway.

The next gift we got was from the owner of the hangers at Hastings MI, he
let us use one for the night as we were expecting to head back to WI early
the next morning. No door, no heat, but with electricity and the EZ heaters
on the engines combined with a couple blankets kept the big IO-540's toasty.

Christmas morning it was warmer, nearly 9 above! We plugged the jumper
cables into the auxiliary power outlet and used the car to run the Janis
heater. It warmed up the cabin nicely as we pre-flighted and loaded up the
sleigh. Although GRR was reporting overcast of 2300, the in-laws never saw
us after we left the ground. We climbed out into an east wind that combined
with the super low density altitude had the Aztec climbing at nearly 2000
fpm. We turned west and continued to climb to our enroute altitude of 6000
ft, which unfortunately kept us in the soup.

Although no ice had been reported, nor expected according to FSS, once we
were 1/2 way back across the pond I noticed a few specks on the windshield
and kept a watchful eye on the wings. Sure enough, a thin line of rime
began to form.

Christmas seems to bring out the "low man on the totempole" for controllers.
On the way to MI a female controller at Chicago Center requested me to
descend from 9000 to 4000 the exact minute I had leveled off after climbing
out. I questioned her intentions and she questioned my destination. I
stayed at 9000 until she got it straightened out. Now we were on our way
back to WI with a little ice building and I recognized her voice once again.
After 4 requests to descend from 6 to 4000, she finally answered and let me
down. I had been listening to OSH ATIS which was reporting a scattered
layer at 5200, so I felt 4000 would be low enough and it was. Once we broke
out the ice started to sublimate and we were in the clear except for the
occasional scattered snow shower.

An uneventful visual approach into STE and we were back on the ground and
headed home to see what Santa had delivered while we were away.

All in all it was a nice experience. We "got" to spend Christmas with both
sides of our entire family (and of the lake!). Something that would be
impossible without general aviation!

I also "got" a good magnetic screwdriver and bit coming (it was back
ordered). (I've had the little hand held crank flashlight for a few weeks,
an early Christmas present to myself

Jim