Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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Keith McCord Reporting The Colorado storms stranded thousands of travelers at Denver's airport. It'll be weeks before all that snow melts. We found a Utah family affected by the storm, but they didn't let it ruin their Christmas.
Meet the Archibalds -- Kelly, John, Brett and Allison. But what in the world are they doing sitting in the snow, wearing shorts, t-shirts and sandals?
John Archibald: "We were all heading to Cancun, Mexico. We were all really excited about that."
Ten members of the family were planning to fly in from various parts of the country to spend Christmas in Cancun. Half the group was already there. John and his wife Kelly--BYU students-- drove to Denver and met up with John's dad, brother and sister. They were supposed to fly out of DIA on December 20th, but then the huge winter storm hit and shut it down.
Christmas plans apparently ruined, they went back to John's parents' house. The group in Cancun, though, decided to rub it in a little. They e-mailed a photo showing the beautiful blue ocean; and took pieces of white coral and spelled out the names of those who were forced to stay in Denver.
Q-So when you clicked on that, did you just groan?
John: "Yeah, looking at the pictures and thinking, gee we could have been there. So we decided that we had to have as much fun as they did."
So they built a giant igloo in the yard-- big enough to hold the whole family-- spray-painted the names of the Cancun group on the side, and e-mailed it back!
Kelly Archibald: "We just wanted to show the rest of the family that we could have fun too, even if we weren't in paradise."
But in the end, they did get to paradise, if only briefly. They spent a day and a half there.
"We got there late on the 24th, we're finally there with the family, and got to spend Christmas together. And I think that's why we went down there, had to be there with the family."
For the Archibalds, Feliz Navidad of 2006 will certainly not be forgotten!
"Definitely interesting! We'll see what happens next year!"
