A snow day in photos

We got our first significant snowfall of the season yesterday. It started just as the morning commute time was starting- around ~7:30 a.m. It snowed heavily for most of the day, finally wrapping up by early evening. Unfortunately for the boys, school was ON, as the worst of it really happened during the time they were at school. By the time they got out, it was tapering off and roads were being cleared.

My deck and yard were totally clear of snow at 7 a.m., but by 10 a.m. it looked like this:

I had meetings starting at 8:30, so I was down in my office with the curtains closed. When I emerged around 10:30 for a little break, I was surprised to see how much had accumulated! It made me wish I could take the rest of the day off and snuggle by the fireplace. I couldn’t do that, but I could snuggle for 10 minutes or so! So I set a timer for 10 minutes, propped up my feet and read my Christmas book for a few minutes:

Then it was back to work. After about an hour, the lights flickered! Weird. Then they flickered again, and then they went OUT. Uhhhh…… ??? I waited a few minutes and then went on our city’s Facebook page to see if anyone was talking about a power outage. Sure enough, sounds like a big section of town had power knocked out. Great!

So I texted my team that we had lost power and I’d be off for a bit, and then decided to head out to shovel. We do have a snowblower, but a) I couldn’t open the garage (no power, and opening it manually seemed…. hard) and b) I’ve never actually used our snowblower, anyway, so I have no idea how to even turn it on. LOL. I REALLY need to learn how to use it. That’s normally Ivan’s job, but still- I should know how to use it, too.

HOLY crap. This was the heaviest, wettest snow I’ve ever encountered. It took forever to clear the driveway, and I was sweating and had a back ache by the end. As I heaved shovelful after shovelful of snow, I decided then and there that I was going to cancel my workout plans for the day (didn’t feel like trekking out to the gym in the snowstorm, anyway) and call this shoveling workout my workout for the day. ☑️

1 1/2 hours later….. I was done.

I felt very festive while I shoveled, however, knowing I had this Christmas sweater on underneath my jacket:

Then I realized that I still needed to clear off the hot tub and back patio. Ugh. Power still was out, so, might as well keep going…..

I FINALLY finished, and the power was still not back on… Fortunately the gas fireplace in the living room did still work, without electricity, so I sat down to warm up my toes, and lo and behold, the power came back on! Lucky me, I was able to go back to work.

After school, Asher had made plans to go sledding with a friend. I drove him over there:

Dropped them at the sledding hill near his friend’s house:

This morning I was up by 6 and the world seemed dark and quiet yet, so I decided to sneak out to the hot tub for a little soak. My Christmas lights on the deck were giving off a soft glow and the snow was so beautiful and the water was steaming hot:

Now I’m sitting and waiting for Asher + friend at a 8- 9:40 a.m. swim practice.

The last 5 years on this particular December ~10-12 weekend we have always been at the 12 & Under Single Age State meet in Milwaukee, but as Asher just turned 13, this is the first year in a long time that he isn’t swimming in that meet. It’s a little bittersweet to close that chapter, but mostly just SWEET, because his team always hosts that other big meet next weekend…. which meant we always had the 2 weekends in a row before Christmas tied up with meets. (And the Milwaukee meet meant being away overnight/ all weekend long. Of course, this year, now that we aren’t attending, they moved the meet to a pool on the west side of Madison….. which would have been wayyyyy more convenient for us these past 5 years…. hmph.)

I am thankful to have some more bandwidth and breathing room in our holiday season again! Looking forward to a pretty open weekend- thinking tomorrow is going to include some COOKIE BAKING!! And a few Christmas movies. 😊

Have a wonderful weekend!

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the above mentioned- no swim meet this weekend and more time for holiday enjoyment. 🙂