Icemegeddon 2013

As I mentioned in my previous post, a massive ice storm hit our area Thursday night/Friday morning.  The official totals show about 2.5" of combined ice and sleet where we are.  Temperatures weren't above freezing until yesterday afternoon.  Anything that did manage to melt re-froze overnight, as will be the case the next couple of days.  Schools were closed Friday and again today for safety reasons.  I can't really say if this is "the worst ice storm ever" because each one has different factors.  The bitter cold temps lasting for days and the fact that this is awfully early in the season do make this storm pretty bad, though.

Amazingly enough, we've made the most of our time stuck at home.  The layer of sleet over the ice made for great sledding on Friday.  While we were out front that morning our neighbor and his kindergartner daughter came over and he asked if she could play for a while so he could do some work from home.  The kids all got along great and actually spent most of their time outside.  They would come in occasionally to warm up then they'd go right back at it.  The neighbor girl ended up staying for 4 or 5 hours and it was the best distraction we could have asked for!

 

 

 

 

 

I'm so glad we got the outside time in on Friday because Saturday was much colder and the sleet had iced over during the night.  That didn't really stop our kiddos, though.  They still played out there quite a bit, just not as much as Friday.  I took the opportunity to bake sugar and gingerbread cookies and get our neighbor gifts made.  We invited our neighbors from across the street to join us for some decorating fun.  I had purchased some gingerbread house kits at the after Christmas sales last year.  This weekend was the perfect time to break them out!  We all played some games, drank some hot tea and watched the kids run laps around the house from their sugar highs after sneaking candy off their houses.  It was a fun afternoon!

 

 

 

Yesterday we decided to venture out for lunch and to Target for a change of scenery.  We invited our neighbors to join us for lunch then back to the house to decorate all the cookies.  More fun was had with that adventure, but no pictures.  This morning we made the rounds delivering all our goodies after a session of Just Dance on the Wii to burn some energy.  Now it's movie/nap time and probably time to start getting the house back in order.

I really feel like this ice storm was a blessing for us.  We are safe, warm and dry, didn't lose power, spent lots of fun time as a family, had the opportunity to really get to know our neighbors and I've knocked so many things of my holiday to-do list!  There's been some sibling bickering here and there, but no more than usual.  Things could have been much worse in so many ways.  Truly thankful!