WALKING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND!

Being from Wisconsin and Utah, Skyler and I don't think it odd when we have a forecast calling for 8 inches of snow in a day. That probably wouldn't even earn a snow day in Wisconsin. When we lived in Alexandria last year, we were shocked that a snow day was called with less than 2 inches of snow on the ground.

Imagine our surprise when we started hearing news reports a few days ago calling for 5-8 inches of snow on Friday night (December 18). That's enough to throw any Virginian into a panicked frenzy. It just kept getting better, though. 12-15 inches were then forecasted for Saturday, with an additional 2-4 on Saturday night. Based on the behavior of our fellow Virginian's, you would have seriously thought we were preparing for the worst natural disaster in the earth's history. Gas stations had cars lined up for a mile. Stores were being emptied of milk, bread, eggs, and toilet paper. As one of our neighbors said, "I guess they're going to be making a lot of french toast." It was complete and total chaos.

We thought that last year's snow accumulations (less than 5 inches all winter) were going to become the norm for our area. We never had more than a dusting of snow, and we lived in an apartment for 4 years. So, the only thing that we were out at the stores looking for was a shovel. Oh, the chaos that I witnessed. If it weren't for the fact that I really did need a shovel, it would be have been incredibly humorous. Home Depot had a line of over 50 people anxiously waiting for the next shipment of shovels to come in, since all the shovels had disappeared from the store earlier in the day. I had a kind worker approach me and say, "Don't bother waiting in this line. I really don't think the shipment's getting here anytime soon, so you might want to get to another store before this line of people does." Off to Lowe's I went, only to find that they were out of all salt, shovels, and every snowblower in the store. No luck anywhere else, so we just shrugged and figured that a neighbor would have one that we could borrow.

Well, the December Snow Storm ended up being the Blizzard of 2009. It was record breaking and crazy!!! Here's a picture of what we woke up to early on Saturday morning.

Compare that to the next picture. This is the winter that we were used to last year.

So, the forecast was correct, and we were here for history in the making. We had no idea what kind of beating were in for, though, on Saturday. We found a neighbor who was kind enough to loan us his extra shovel, and that saved us. He helped Skyler dig out the driveway, and we were so grateful for that. After he left, we noticed that our neighbors who live in the tan house weren't home. Thinking they had already left for the holidays Skyler suggested that we shovel their driveway and walkway. I went across the street to borrow another shovel from the neighbors directly across from us, and we went to work unburying the driveway of our friends.

While we were out there, we noticed the neighbors kiddy corner from us outside shoveling as well. They had only one shovel, so they kept trading off the shoveling duties. We were done with our friend's house, so Skyler walked over and introduced himself to the neighbors we hadn't met. As we were talking, Skyler started helping the neighbor dig his way out. As they were doing that, I was shoveling out the house directly across from us, since her husband was out of town and she has two little girls to watch out for. By the time we were done with that side of the street it looked like our house had never been shoveled. Without any prompting, our neighbor followed Skyler to our house and we all started shoveling.

This became the pattern for the rest of the day. Our neighbors in the tan house came home from a trip around 1 p.m., and the rest of the day consisted of 4 neighbors helping each other out by going from house to house to shovel each family out. That process repeated several times that day, as the wind grew stronger and stronger!

I am so touched by that story for several reasons: 1) We hadn't met all of the neighbors we worked with that day, but what a fabulous way to meet them. 2) We forged instant friendships because we labored together, out of concern for another family's well being. 3) Trying to keep up with all the snow that fell this weekend was such a daunting task. To have been done by one person, or just one family would have been near impossible. 4) We got to know the backgrounds of our sweet neighbors, and it made us like them even more. 5) Looking back at this weekend really gets me choked up. Being in a blizzard like that, being almost completely home-bound, could make anyone feel so alone. We're not alone, though. We have neighbors looking out for us, and we're looking out for them. Though our bodies are physically exhausted and hurting because of the constant shoveling that went on, I will cherish this as one of the greatest moments we've ever had.

And now...the evidence of this lovely Blizzard:

Our backyard. This was in the afternoon on Saturday, and you can see the silt fence getting more buried by the minute.

This is our front walkway. We had finished shoveling not 10 minutes earlier, and this is what happened in the next 10 minutes.

Our poor little trees were just getting battered in the snow.

Skyler taking a break to pose for the camera (he's even smiling after all that shoveling).

The snow was pelting us in the face at times, which made seeing anything quite the difficult task.

Skyler conquering the snow!

Our street covered in a beautiful white! Most of our neighbors were either like us and didn't own a shovel OR they didn't know to keep up with the shoveling throughout the day because an incredible number of people were outside today trying to dig themselves out from a weekend of snow. Not fun.

Our snow pile that kept getting bigger and bigger. In the background is one of our kind neighbors that we met for the first time this weekend.

The front of our house with a look we had never seen before-- snow covered!

Our mailbox. Surprise, surprise. No mail came on Saturday.

My happy snowman braving the cold on our front step.

The gorgeous scene we woke up to this morning. Perfect, glistening white snow.

No, these are not animal tracks. They're human. After we finished the final round of shoveling this morning, Skyler had the bright idea to have a race around the house. Me being the bright one that I am said, "You mean, in the snow?" I finally agreed and we started our race around the house. My one stipulation was that Skyler was not allowed to throw any snow balls at me while racing or push me over in the snow to try and get ahead.

This is at the back of the house, only being halfway done with our race. Since Skyler thought I was going to slow he agreed to give me a 10 second head start. I took off running at full speed (with snow much higher than my knees), fully thinking I was actually going to beat him to the front of the house.

Boy, was I mistaken! As soon as my 10 second lead was up my leg completely sunk into the snow, and I was stuck. I was trying my best to get out as my wonderful husband came up behind me and tackled me. I flopped face first into the snow, with my leg still sunk below me. Two things from "A Christmas Story" come to mind. First was when the kid got his tongue stuck to the flagpole and he was yelling, "Thtuck, thtuck, THTUCK!" Second was when Randy was pushed over into the snow and he said, "Hey kid! I can't get up. I CAN'T GET UP!" Needless to say, Skyler one that race. It was actually the most fun we had all day!

And finally- what a perfect way to end the Blizzard of 2009 adventures. The calm after the storm.