well, that was an unusual christmas

In that Baker B and the cats and I spent it snowed in together. Which honestly would have been much more fun and sweet and romantic even had we not already spent, what? Five or six? Or MORE??? days snowed in together just this month alone. On the positive side, it sure beat being snowed in in Morganton until, oh, Tuesday. Which we would have been, had we not come back up here after the Christmas party last night. Intending to drive back down this morning for Christmas itself.

I’m sure everyone on the east coast has been hearing about this HUGE STORM that’s been milling around for like a week now. And as bad as our forecasts usually are, this one gets the Worst CrazyMaking Forecast EVER award. Honestly, every time I looked at the forecast, it had changed radically. We were getting a dusting of snow. We were getting a foot of snow. We were getting no snow at all but Raleigh would be getting a foot. We might get three inches. We might get two feet. It would start Friday. It would start Sunday. It would start Saturday night. It would start Friday and continue to Monday. This has gone on all week long. 

SO last night we drive down to M’ton for the party, and decide to come back home afterwards and drive back down again today. I used to be the one who tried to get out of spending the night at Baker B’s mom’s house, but I think he’s gotten worse than I am in recent years. And at first we were expecting a huge crowd– Baker B’s brother and SIL, two of their daughters, the two daughters’ husbands and children, and his sister’s boyfriend who has spent every Christmas with us since Gail died. The third niece, her husband, and their two kids were also coming, but not till Sunday. It’s a big old house with a lot of rooms, but the rooms are very teeny and weirdly arranged, and worst of all there is ONE shower. Two nieces were getting a motel, but that’s still a lot of people crammed into one house. As it turned out, Colorado niece came down with pneumonia right before her flight, and had to cancel out. Which was very disappointing for us all – they’ve got a baby who was born in April, and we haven’t met him yet. And Gail’s boyfriend had to cancel out- he had several family members with serious health problems all at the same time. 

Logically we should have stayed, what with all the extra room, but we didn’t. The thought of our own bed, a warm house (MIL’s house is FREEZING, especially upstairs where we sleep), and a glass of wine won out. The forecast last night was saying an inch or two for us, then late tonight it was supposed to really pick up. And M’ton was getting a dusting. Naturally, this morning it’s already snowing here and suddenly M’ton was getting six or EIGHT inches. Which is like us getting two feet, since they are not used to much snow. And don’t know how to clear the roads.

SO, here we are. We’ve had twisty turney constantly changing plans for I don’t know how long, and after all that ended up here by ourselves. Which I’d expect to enjoy, especially since we spent the last two Christmases in Charleston, and loved it so much we decided that’s our new tradition, but spending it up here by ourselves, snowed in, was just not quite the same. (We were actually planning at one time to go to Charleston tomorrow, but it’s supposed to be very cold there too, so now we’re going New Years. When it is, I HOPE, going to be in the sixties.) 

I think really the worst thing about missing everything but the Christmas party is that Baker B’s mom is nearly 90, and realistically isn’t going to be having an unlimited number of Christmases in that house. She’s actually doing better this Christmas than she was last year- she was having a lot of knee and hip pain last year but the shots she’s been taking have really helped- but still. I’m sure that’s why all the nieces were trying to come down too. But the Colorado Niece is planning to visit in the spring now, so I hope the others can come down then too (they are in Baltimore). That will be even better than Christmas – warm weather!

Tomorrow I will attempt to continue my England Travelogue with the Second Leg, which shouldn’t be a problem as I don’t think we’re going anywhere until at least Monday if the forecast is right- it’s supposed to snow up to seven inches more tomorrow and the wind is going to start howling. Blizzard! Yippie! 

And here’s a few visuals:

Snow on the dead plants earlier today-

Impromptu snowmen on the Outback

The front yard, with the tacky lights reflecting in the window:

The other direction, with even more reflections! I think even my laptop is reflecting from the couch, over the dead plants in the garden. 

And this is really odd– we have very annoying motion sensor lights, which stay on forever if you don’t want them to, and go off in about three seconds if you are actually trying to see something out there. So of course they kept going off the minute I’d get my camera steady. This is right after the lights went off — it’s looking out the window, but reflecting the entire livingroom behind me. Artsy! Or a symptom of Cabin Fever.