Friday, December 20th - more snow on the way

What a week it's been!  After a stormy day on Wednesday, which saw us being sent home at noon, Thursday was a major clean up day. It was sunny and not so cold, an absolutely lovely day. Today is heading for a high of -8 and more snow tonight, perhaps 10 cms by the end of the day tomorrow. Then the big news is another storm system coming through on Sunday. This one has the potential to bring either lots of snow or freezing rain, or maybe a combination of both. They are currently saying southern Ontario may get lots of freezing rain. That puts us in mind of the terrible ice storm of 1998, I think it was. We were SO fortunate at that time. We had been to New Hampshire to visit friends for New Years and the rain had started just before we got home. In fact the first sign of slippery conditions was when we tried to turn into our driveway and slid right past. After that all hell broke loose and it turned into a huge event. Hopefully this one won't be as bad, especially so close to Christmas when many people will be traveling.



We have a large amount of snow in our back yard, unprecedented for this time of year, at least since
 we've been here. I saw on the news last night that the ski hill will be opening this weekend - the first time in 10 years it's opened before January.  Let's hope it stays that way. The kids love going to Brookvale.

When I was coming home on Wednesday afternoon, the driving was terrible. I got home and called Patti and told her to just stay home. I couldn't imaging heading out on a two day drive in those conditions. But after chatting she assured me they could take their time. These things are usually cleaned up the next day and if they have to stop and wait out a storm somewhere they can do that. I suppose that's one of the pluses of coming after Christmas - there's no pressure to make it there for the big day.






This year, as in most years, it falls upon me to decorate for Christmas at work. We have quite a large tree, but unfortunately, in that big space, it kind of gets lost. So I decided to extend things just a tiny bit and add some snow flakes to the windows. I purchased some large plastic flakes and proceeded to put one in each window. Not an easy task, as these windows are very high. Good thing I'm not afraid of heights. I stayed one Tuesday evening, while waiting for dance class, and borrowed a big ladder and set about hanging one in each window. They actually look pretty good. The bonus I hand't counted on is when it's a really sunny day, we get these great shadows on the opposite  walls. Just adds one more little festive touch.

The kids had their annual Christmas play on Wednesday night. This year was a repeat of CATS. I had planned to go up for it but in retrospect, with the weather we've all been having, who knows how long I might have taken to either get there or back. I'm assured there will be pictures forthcoming.  Instead my evenings have been filled with other tasks. Last night I baked another batch of cookies and tonight I'll do the same. I thought about going out to the craft room to put some stuff away, that's piled up on a the sewing table, but the snow has yet to be removed from in front of the door at the back (and there's a lot of it!) Lloyd had planned to do that yesterday with his tractor, after our neighbor had blown most of the snow out of the main part of the lane. But he had some trouble getting it to start. Hopefully he has it fixed and can move some snow around today.  Just  as well, I really needed to stay inside and do some work. Lots of time to play out there in January!