Where did you spend Christmas Eve?

Wherever it was, it had to be a lot better than the place Robert Schoff found himself in.

The 77-year-old Des Moines, Iowa man began his holiday with a toilet problem. So he went out to his septic tank and tried to remove the clog. Instead, it removed him. The senior lost his balance and fell into the slop, with his head trapped inside and his feet kicking wildly in the air. The 5'5", 135-lbs. man tried yelling for help at the top of his lungs but no one heard him.

He stayed that way for about an hour unable to escape his smelly predicament until his wife began to wonder where her husband disappeared to. Toni Schoff walked by a window, saw his feet emerging from the opening and quickly rushed outside. But even that didn't help. "I saw these kicking feet and ran out, but couldn't get him out," she recalls.

Eventually 911 and fire officials rushed to the scene and pulled him to safety. A long shower followed. "I thought it was the end of my life," he reflects. "Thank God my wife saw me. I don't think I could have stood staying in there much more."

As for his holiday? "It wasn't good, I'll tell you what," he admits. "It was the worst Christmas Eve I've ever had."

In fact, you might say it was one that really tanked. 

File photo