Bah humbug!
After 10 days straight of snow and below-freezing weather, I'm really done with the white Christmas dreams. We survived Christmas without any car crashes or other mishaps, but the snowy weather certainly dampened the pre-Christmas celebrations a bit.
We had planned a number of holiday events for which one must procure tickets in advance, such as a Nutcracker Tea and Breakfast with Santa and Bob the Builder, and everything was cancelled. Church was cancelled on both previous Sundays and on Christmas Eve. A holiday lunch at work was cancelled, and our extended family Christmas Eve celebration has been postponed to brunch this coming Sunday.
And as of the day before Christmas Eve, it appeared that my sister and her family might not make it down to Portland for the holiday. It was dicey and day to day...they had planned to come down on Monday, but it then continued to be stormy, and then it appeared that Wednesday would be the best day, but then the forecast changed to say that Wednesday would be the worst day of all...so then they planned to come down on Tuesday...however, they had to buy snow tires. My brother-in-law went off to purchase them and it took him over 4 hours to buy them (long story). By the time he returned home and started packing up the car, the car-top carrier froze in a halfway open position. It took him over an hour to fix it--as it was getting later in the afternoon and the temperatures dropping, and it really appeared that their trip was not meant to be. That would have been really incredibly depressing if they hadn't been able to come. But hallelujah! He was able to fix it, and amazingly it took them only 3 hours to drive down. The main roads seem to be okay; it's the unplowed and unsalted side streets that are really dangerous.
Here are some photos of our snowy yard and neighborhood:
These are from last week, when the snow was not as deep as it is now:
The backyard, last week
View from the front window--that branch is usually not so low, but it was weighted down with snow and ice
This car is buried even more deeply now!
I took these photos on our drive to Fred Meyer on Tuesday (only the second time I'd been out of the house in the previous 9 days!):
After 10 days straight of snow and below-freezing weather, I'm really done with the white Christmas dreams. We survived Christmas without any car crashes or other mishaps, but the snowy weather certainly dampened the pre-Christmas celebrations a bit.
We had planned a number of holiday events for which one must procure tickets in advance, such as a Nutcracker Tea and Breakfast with Santa and Bob the Builder, and everything was cancelled. Church was cancelled on both previous Sundays and on Christmas Eve. A holiday lunch at work was cancelled, and our extended family Christmas Eve celebration has been postponed to brunch this coming Sunday.
And as of the day before Christmas Eve, it appeared that my sister and her family might not make it down to Portland for the holiday. It was dicey and day to day...they had planned to come down on Monday, but it then continued to be stormy, and then it appeared that Wednesday would be the best day, but then the forecast changed to say that Wednesday would be the worst day of all...so then they planned to come down on Tuesday...however, they had to buy snow tires. My brother-in-law went off to purchase them and it took him over 4 hours to buy them (long story). By the time he returned home and started packing up the car, the car-top carrier froze in a halfway open position. It took him over an hour to fix it--as it was getting later in the afternoon and the temperatures dropping, and it really appeared that their trip was not meant to be. That would have been really incredibly depressing if they hadn't been able to come. But hallelujah! He was able to fix it, and amazingly it took them only 3 hours to drive down. The main roads seem to be okay; it's the unplowed and unsalted side streets that are really dangerous.
Here are some photos of our snowy yard and neighborhood:
These are from last week, when the snow was not as deep as it is now:
The backyard, last week
View from the front window--that branch is usually not so low, but it was weighted down with snow and ice
This car is buried even more deeply now!
I took these photos on our drive to Fred Meyer on Tuesday (only the second time I'd been out of the house in the previous 9 days!):
View from in front of our house
Tree in our neighbor's yard
View of trees off Barbur Boulevard
Some amazing icicles on the townhouse across the street
View of our house from in front
Car buried in snow
Another view of the house
Kieran and his snowman
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