blizzard of 2009

The Blizzard of 2009: The closer we got to the storm, the greater the snow accumulation predictions. It started snowing Friday, Dec 18 at about 9pm and started sticking immediately. By the time we got up Saturday morning there were already 9 inches. For a significant portion of the day it snowed over an inch per hour. The greatest accumulation we measured in our yard was 21 inches. Casey and I took turns, one of us shoveling while the other watched the kids sled down the neighbor’s side yard (nick-named “Jack and Jill’s Hill”). It is nice to have a sledding area so close to the house, but unfortunate that at the bottom of the hill is the street leading to our cul-de-sac. Even though almost no one was our driving in the blizzard, we felt obligated to stand near the kids and make sure they didn’t do a sledding run right in front of a car. All told we shoveled 4 times on Saturday and still had several inches left to do on Sunday. The temperature was just below freezing, so the snow was heavy and wet. Bad for shoveling, but good for snow men and snow forts. One of my Facebook friends posted a picture of an awesome fort that her husband and kids made by filling 5 gallon bucket full of snow then dumping them out like a sand castle. We tried several times but were unable to perfect the packing/dumping technique. Before the blizzard was predicted Dan and Danielle had scheduled Aiden’s 2nd birthday party for Sunday. They ended up cancelling the party, but we went over anyway to help them eat the cake that they’d already bought. Grammy Carole and Granddad ventured out too and we all trudged down to the park near Dan’s house for a sledding and a snowball fight. Alex has very fond memories of the snowball fight with his dad last year at Quiet Waters Park and so was more interested in snowball fighting than sledding. On Monday the county closed school and the Federal Government offices in DC closed. We decided to get some new tires for the truck at Sears which is across from the mall. It took us about 3 times as long as usual to get there, not because of the snow, but because of the Christmas shoppers going to the mall! I figured if several million Marylanders could get to the mall, surely schools would be opened on Tuesday. No such luck. The county closed school on Tuesday and Wednesday which brought us right up to Christmas Eve which was already a holiday. In all the kids were off school for 2 solid weeks! There was so much snow that even though the temperatures for the rest of the week didn’t stay below freezing, the snow didn’t melt until Friday, so the kids got to play in it for 6 days. Pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/AidenS2ndBdayPartyPart1# although I’ve already sent the link around, so you’ve probably already seen them.