Snowpocalypse - Winter Storm Grayson

I've been a little slack over the Christmas holiday. I do apologize for that. But I've had a wonderful Christmas season with my family making memories, being intentional, and creating stronger family bonds that will last a lifetime.

As many of you may know, we live in the SOUTH. So it was quite a surprise (and an answered prayer that I actually pray for each and every winter) to see and hear that SNOW as in the forecast. MANY of my local friends were not happy and those that were had hoped the snow would come, flurry, and then leave as fast as it had blown in. But last Tuesday - January 2nd, 2018 - the temps started to drop and on Wednesday morning we awoke to freezing rain, which led to flurries, which led to FULL BLOWN SNOW! And boy did it snow!! All day long!!! An amazing feat for the southern US, especially near us since we are so close to the coast.

It was snowing hard like this for hours!

We even hit record lows, record maximum highs (which were still low), and record lengths of not going above 40 and with low temps staying below 25! Oh and the airport was CLOSED. And as I type this post today there is still snow on the ground (although now melting since our temperature today is 54) and our pond is finally thawing ... maybe enough for the duck to come home to sleep in tonight. It has not snowed here in 8 years. The last time we were in a different location and my son was only 11 months - he didn't even remember seeing snow. And the last time it disappeared in like a day.

The thing about snow in a strictly southern state that sees any accumulation of snow is that we have absolutely no infrastructure to support this. So roads that are sunny melt in the day and then re-froze each and every night, making driving a very dangerous and treacherous task ... so we opted to stay home most of the time. Some of the main roads were fine and others, not so much. We had to "borrow" sanding and salting trucks - which I heard we had 5,000 tons of sand ... don't think that is enough for all the roads in this area. Secondary roads were being closed, even as late as Sunday morning because of the freezing temps at night. Even one location of where our church meets had to cancel service because the road was closed.

Catching snowflakes

But I truly LOVED every second of Wednesday January 3, 2018! We played in the early flurries. Came in and out a bazillion times. Took the dogs to experience snow - which I don't think either of them had ever really seen. Had a snowball fight. Became amazed as the snow started to pour down and fill up the grass, the flower beds, cover the van, and the trashcan. Caught snowflakes with our tongue. We tried to make a snowman the first day ... to no avail ... but the second day the snow stayed! So we made a snowman, and played again. For hours they went out played hard, came in, warmed up and dried their wet clothes, and then went out again! It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

Made a snowmom and a baby snowkid

Pond beginning to freeze over ... it was totally frozen until today!

We also got to make some things I haven't had in years! We made homemade snow cream (instead of ice cream) - think we did that on Day 3 of snow on the ground. Have you ever made snow cream? Leave a comment with your favorite recipe. I'm sure going to do this again!

Fresh snow cream!

And then the morning of Day 4 before the snow really started to melt at all we made Maple Snow Candy, which my eldest daughter read about in a Little House on the Prairie book -  I think. It tasted so yummy ... and it was even better a few days later.

I didn't have the best pan to "roll" the candy on a stick, but it still worked.

Then last night, the last night for temps to fall into below freezing (28 degrees at 9p) we tried to make some frozen bubbles. They didn't really freeze and I forgot to get ANY pictures of that, but they did float way longer. We'll try that one again ... next time we have a big snow/freeze here ... or when we move to Evansville, IN - which gets colder temps and more snow then here more regularly. ;)

First snow angels! (They made several of these.)

Chord loved the snow and wanted to just run and tun.