Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow...

This is just a cute picture of Kevin and I


So a couple of weeks ago I talked about how we don't get much snow in Virginia. If you remember, we delayed church over a little more than a dusting of snow. I thought that was hilarious. The thing is, we are just not prepared to handle snow here because we don't get very much. Well, this past weekend, we got nailed! The meteorologists were predicting about 4-8 inches of snow, which is a ton of snow for us (especially in December - big snows usually come in March). It started snowing Friday around 5p. By the time we went to bed Friday night we already had 8 inches of snow. It snowed most of the day on Saturday too. We ended up with somewhere between 18 and 24 inches of snow. That is like getting 2-3 years worth of snow in 24 hours. Virginia is definitely not prepared for that sort of thing. It took days to dig out from it. They were still digging out people on Tuesday. We were really lucky that Derek was working from home that day, and the kids were home early, so we were able to just sit home and enjoy the snow. I have one friend whose husband left work at 5:30p on Friday, and when I talked to her at 9:30p he still hadn't made it home. He works about 15 miles from home. Derek talked to someone that went to K-Mart at 5p, and didn't make it home until 10p, again maybe 15 miles.

These pictures were taken before we went to bed on Friday night




Church, of course, was canceled on Sunday. Our road didn't even get plowed until Sunday afternoon. Even at that it was a sheet of ice. We had planned to leave on Sunday to head to my parent's for Christmas. That obviously didn't happen. We did make it out Monday morning, barely. :) We drove out of our neighborhood, which was ice, to the gas station, only to realize that we had left the DVD player at home. We knew that with a 12 hour drive ahead, we needed the DVD player. That meant that we had to navigate our hilly, icy neighborhood again. Luckily, we made it. Even the main roads weren't that clear. The highway really only had one lane clear. It was crazy to see cars buried in the snow off in the ditches all along the highway. It was also a little bizarre to drive 12 hours north to less snow than we had in Virginia. We are pretty happy to have made it safely.

Here are some pictures to give some perspective on our snow storm:

Kevin in the snow


Jenna in the snow


Jared in the snow


Everyone had a good time playing in the snow.

Derek making a snow fort for the kids


Kevin inside a snow tunnel that Derek made


In other news for the week, Derek and I celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe it has already been 9 years. They have definitely been the best 9 years of my life. I feel really lucky to be married to the best man in the world (sorry ladies, I got him). He is my best friend, and we still have such a great time together. I am looking forward to eternity. :)

Here we are on our 9th Anniversary



Our anniversary was on Wednesday (December 16), so we had planned to go out on Friday night. We had a baby-sitter lined up and everything. We were supposed to leave about 5:30p on Friday. Around 5p it started snowing. My baby-sitter was going to drive to my house. I sent her a text to see if she wanted to drive in the snow. She said she was OK with it, but her parents wouldn't let her (I wouldn't have let my newly licensed 16 year old drive in it either), so we canceled the date. When we realized how much it was snowing, we were really glad our date was canceled. We probably would have been stuck out overnight had we tried to go somewhere. I think we will try again after the new year.

I also worked hard to get my Christmas presents made. I had to do some painting as part of them, so Jenna and Jared wanted to paint too.




Jenna also had a Christmas program at school this past week. She held up the second letter "S" in the word Christmas. It was a cute little program.

The class spelled out Christmas and talked about the meaning of Christmas with each letter


Jenna was the last "S" which went with the Shepherd next to her.


Before Jenna's program at school, Jenna showed Jared the nativity (she goes to a Christian preschool)


The kids also decided that they were going to put on their own Nativity play.

Here is Jenna as the pregnant Mary



Kevin and Jenna playing Joseph and Mary


Derek as a Wise Man bringing gifts to baby Jesus



I think that is it for the week. There really isn't much that can trump two feet of snow in Virginia.

I hope you all have a safe and very Merry Christmas!