Christmas morning, early, and we are hard in the middle of the Christmas Blizzard of 2009. Graciously, it held off through three Christmas Eve services at church yesterday afternoon and evening, extending the predicted lull longer than predicted before the storm started to fire up again as we were leaving church about 8:45. Now, at 5:30-ish Christmas morning, there are probably 8 additional inches of snow on the ground and it continues to pile up rapidly while the wind whips it around every which way. Fortunately, it is not cold out there, with temperatures in the 20s and near 30 around the area, so we don't have bitter cold to content with along with the snow.
My neighbor Kris, who loves to plow, came and tackled the driveway yesterday morning, cleaning up the first phase of the storm while I was at work, and when I got home I hauled out the snow blower for the first time this year, cleaning up around the house and the shed and cutting a trail to the compost pile and one out and around the chicken coop. I suspect I will need to do that at least twice more through this storm, as it is expected to continue through tomorrow sometime. We'll need to get out to the chickens to feed them later today.
So we are snowed in for Christmas - Casey, Anna, and I - and will miss another holiday with her family in the Cities. We had our family Christmas on Wednesday night, just us and our kids, so there is no need to postpone or delay that gathering. Still, it's hard to miss both Thanksgiving and Christmas so immediately after losing Casey's mom just two months ago.
But we are warm and sheltered, the house is well-stocked with food, we have water to drink and to flush with (though that reminds me I should fill some jugs in case we do lose power), and all-in-all we are well-placed to hunker down and simply rest this Christmas Day.
