Our First 'Real' Snow and a Blizzard Warning!

I had been hearing that we may get some snow since sometime last week. I didn't think much of it because sometimes we barely get a dusting when they forecast several inches. So the snow started Saturday night as a Winter Weather Watch was under way . It was a really wet and heavy snow that made the roads slushy and yucky. We passed up on going to church Sunday morning and Rich ended up on a rescue call for a car accident due to the weather. That afternoon was Rich's Fire Department's Christmas party. As we sat in the fire hall, enjoying good food, playing on fire trucks and Santa's visit (with presents!) the weather continued to get worse. The wind had picked up, it had gotten colder and it was just plain miserable! By that night Morgan's school was already cancelled for the following day and we were under a Winter Weather Warning.

The kiddos with Santa and they didn't even cry!

Monday came and I woke to our house freezing! Rich had turned down the heat because we were running low on fuel oil. (I'll tell you more about that later.) I spent most of the day between trying to stay warm and doing snow related activities with the kiddos for Morgan's first snow day! :-) By Monday afternoon, when I thought the snow was going to let up, the National Weather Service upgraded our Winter Weather Warning to a Blizzard Warning. The system was lingering just east of us over Lake Huron, creating lake effect snow, and was staying until about 7:00 am this morning. Zero visibility, impassible roads, 3 feet of snow in some areas as well as 7 ft snow drifts were all being reported. Morgan's school was cancelled again last night for today.

Throughout all of this, a top concern of mine was having heat (as well as electricity since several others in the area were losing power.) We heat our house using fuel oil and we just started on the keep full program this July. I noticed we were running low a while ago and called last Monday for someone to come out, since I figured we couldn't wait much longer. No one came the whole week to fill it. Rich ended up running to the gas station to get 5 gallons of fuel on Saturday hoping that would hold us over until Monday. Well, with the weather Monday, I figured there was no way anyone would make it out, so I called again, told them what was going on and asked that our guy come out as soon as it's safe. The company apologized and hopefully we have someone coming out tomorrow. Rich grabbed 10 more gallons last night from the gas station....we hope that'll be enough to make it until we get more!!

After this storm, and reading and knowing what others have had to go through to make it through, I have to say that it made me thankful that we made it through safe and sound! Rich was always able to make it out with the truck and went to work both yesterday and today. We didn't end up with as much snow as those north of us did. We never lost our power, so there were no complications there. We still have heat (so far) and I pray that we will, because it's bitter cold out now! (I went out to shovel snow today and only lasted about 20 minutes before my fingers were in pain from the cold! That was with doubled up gloves on, since it was -6 with the wind chill when I went out.) Even though the temp in our house is lingering around 58 and we can feel the cold come through the walls, it still feels a TON better than outside....VERY thankful we still have heat!!!! :-)

Hopefully tomorrow we can get back to normal. Morgan should be going back to school....as long as we get our driveway cleared out and the roads are clean of course. She isn't used to the idea of being both snowed in and not being able to play in the snow. It's so terribly cold I won't let her go out to play and she keeps asking if we can go somewhere! LOL! We should have our fuel oil tank filled tomorrow too! That means we can turn our thermostat back up to the 64 we usually keep it at. And, hopefully, I'll be back to my old self and not cuddled under a blanket trying to stay warm all day! ;-)

Although I didn't get pictures of the blizzard, I did get a few pics today...as you can see we didn't get 3 feet of snow or 7 ft drifts...the tallest drift may be 4 feet.

**UPDATE: Still no school today (Wednesday). It's been too cold for the salt to actually work on the roads, so they're too icy. The snow plows stopped working at sunset last too, so many of the roads hadn't been cleared.

Our Weekend of Christmas Festivities!

Christmas is definitely in the air! We spent much of our weekend doing Christmas activities. Friday night the kids got to stay up late and watch a Christmas Special on TV, 'Yes Virginia'. I remember looking forward to the older, unanimated version every year when I was little, so I really wanted to see the new one with the kids!

Morgan got to help pop the popcorn for the movie!

Enjoying the popcorn-apparently Morgan was going at it with both hands! :-)

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Saturday I put up the rest of the Christmas decorations-including my Precious Moments Nativity!

Saturday night was the church's Christmas musical "A Baby Changes Everything". I didn't take any pictures, but it was a wonderful program! It was very moving and a great way to remember and celebrate the reason for the season! :-)

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Sunday, after church, was the firefighter Christmas party. It's always a wonderful party with great food, music and Santa!

Blake couldn't wait to go get a present from Santa. He kept watching as Santa handed out presents thinking that they were all his! Good thing he was patient and didn't scream! When his name was called, he practically dragged Rich to the front to get his present! LOL! (Morgan wouldn't go anywhere near Santa, so no pictures of her with Santa :-( )

Blake got a phone.

Morgan got a doll.

Mom got a poinsettia!

Actually, I got three! Each year the wives of the firefighters get a 3 foot tall poinsettia! It's huge for our little house, so I always give it away to my mom or mother-in-law. So this year I saw that they had smaller ones (about a foot tall) and thought one of those would be SO much better and I could actually keep it. Rich asked about getting a small one instead of the big one and somehow I ended up with 2 small ones and 1 big one! So much for trying to get less-I ended up with more! LOL!

**By the way, Rich got something too. I'm pretty sure the food (prime rib) and the drinks (rum and cokes) were all Rich could have wanted from the party! LOL!

Macy's 'A million Reasons to Believe'

I loved the 'made for TV' movie "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Clause", when I was younger. I think it was the sole reason I believed in Santa Clause until I was 12. (Yeah, I was kinda naive.) If you never saw it, you really missed out on a truly inspiring story about a girl's letter to the editor of the New York Sun asking about Santa's existence and the editor's subsequent response. Something that I didn't realize, until recently, was the movie was based on a true story, so even if you missed the movie, you can still read the article.

Well, someone at Macy's must have been as inspired as I was by the Virginia's story, because they are doing something really neat in honor of it. They are asking that not only children, but adults as well, write a letter, or wish, to Santa and bring it into Macy's. For every letter they receive, they will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish foundation up to $1,000,000. They will also have a 'Believe' meter that will continue to go up as they receive letters. So take a look at the article, get inspired, and write a letter to Santa this Christmas. You'll be helping make wishes come true :-)