Baby, It's Cold Outside...

What a weird Christmas. Let me just start by saying we were ready for company. Presents were done by the first of December. Christmas cards and mailings were done by the first of December. Claude had all menus planned and food purchased. Then, we started to get these weather reports the week before Christmas. Our weather guys sometimes exaggerate the intensity of storms. So, we listen and are aware but don't come unglued till the actual date of the weather event comes closer.

On Wednesday, December 21st, this was the forecast on my cellphone at 9:51am. This was going to be a real weather event. I posted this picture to our family Facebook page with the comment that the asterisk showed our problem. The forecast was for bitter cold air with wind chills of -30 or -40. We had the potential for 40-50 mph winds. While we wouldn't get lots of snow, it was to be like a blizzard with all the wind whipping the snow around. Not good folks. Not good.

We were anticipating the Marx family coming and spending some time with us. We knew, with Hayden working, we might have to have Christmas on another day. Now, with this weather forecast, we were not sure about any travel. Roads were to have rain first with a 30-40 degree drop in a few minutes. This meant a flash freeze of all the water out there. Roads would be covered with ice and, with the low temperatures, there would be no melting. The some amount of snow would come on top of that ice. One can actually drive on snow, if careful. Ice is not that forgiving to drivers. My philosophy is that those who don't absolutely have to be on the roads should stay home. This leaves the roads clear for those who must drive (health care and emergency personnel) to have plenty of room to spin a bit and not crash. 

The temperature drop was to happen Thursday night. We picked up our frozen cinnamon rolls Thursday afternoon and settled into our home for the duration. 

When we got up Friday morning, I checked my cellphone weather app. This is what I found. I was very happy I put our heavy flannel sheets on our bed before this hit. Claude and I decided to drop out thermostat by 5 degrees to help with that need for an almost constantly running heater. This would lessen the amount of electricity we needed. We also closed all blinds in our home. We usually leave them open all the time except for our bedroom. 

I went outside and took these pictures from the back and front doors of our home. Not a lot of snow but definitely a nice coating of ice in place under snow and on all surfaces. 

Yes folks, we were staying in our home. We would not leave it until Sunday and only to go to Church across the street. We drove the Jeep. Back to our home until Wednesday. So grateful for a tiny home I love to be in. 

Through the day, I continued to take pictures of my cellphone weather app. We never got above zero all day long. 

At 9:23am, we lost power. I sent a text to our utility company that our address had no power. They replied that they had the information. I posted no power on Facebook and learned that other neighborhoods were also without power. With everyone's homes running heat, that is a lot of power being used. We were very fortunate. We were not an entire hour without power. I must be honest here. The hardest part was being careful with how much I used my devices. Not sure when power would return, I wanted to save the power on our phones particularly. We had plenty of clothes to bundle up in and a very warm bed with lots of extra blankets. We wouldn't freeze. But we wanted to be able to communicate with family. Grateful power was restored fairly quickly. The next problem is resetting clocks when the power comes back on. Ugh!

I posted this for our friends in Scott County to know when their power goes out: "Scott County friends. When your power goes out, text 454358 with the word Outage. LG&E/KU will text the beginning of your address back to verify location.  Give them 30 minutes and text back Status. They will update you on estimated time till you will receive power again." This was very useful to in Sadieville whenever the power went out. When you are in the city, it seems that power is fixed first so you get maximum people taken care of. 

In the evening, there were thousands of homes without power in Kentucky. We received this alert from our power company: "Extreme cold and pressures on regional grid are resulting in scattered power outages and LG&E and KU need customers’ help reducing energy consumption. Our team is working diligently to help minimize extended impacts to our customers and as part of those efforts, we are performing brief service interruptions in intervals across our service territories.  While the outage durations will vary, we are targeting about 30 minutes. We appreciate our customers’ patience and their energy conservation efforts."

After this message, we gave us setting the clocks till all this passed. 

Hayden would have to work Christmas eve and Christmas day. We decided to aim for a Monday Christmas dinner at our home. That would not happen either as we received additional snow and the Interstates were evening have closures in some sections due to poor road conditions. 

We did go to Church on Christmas day (Sunday) and came right back home. Claude fixed us bean and ham soup on night and chili with cornbread another night. We did not starve. 

I started my annual Christmas puzzle on Saturday and finished it on Sunday. I actually bought this puzzle with the Marx family in mind. A few years ago, they went to Venice. This is the Doge Palace in Venice. Andie was very happy to see the puzzle. Brought back lots of good memories for her. When I finished the puzzle, there was one piece missing. I had an extra sweater on while I was doing this. I'm guessing a piece stuck to my sweater and fell off somewhen in our home. Ugh!

We started watching the Psych television series again. Very nice to sit in the living room with the Christmas tree lights on and crochet while watching this series. 

Christmas day was just Claude and me. For the past 16 years, we have always had the Marx in our home. Bailey has never had Christmas anywhere else. Hayden has his first Christmas in Maryland but he was a month old and really doesn't remember it at all. Claude and I have had one Christmas when we lived in Maryland that it was just the two of us. It just felt weird. And...we had all this food. 

We did call all our kids on Christmas Day and enjoyed catching up with each of them. 

I posted on our family Facebook page a request for pictures of their homes during this storm. You see, it wasn't just in Kentucky. It was all over the United States. My family in Louisiana were experienced 17 degree weather. I received these pictures from them of snow where they live and/or work.

Our Aubrey lives in Hesperia, Michigan. This is from her front door.

Claude's sister, Lynette, lives in Huntsville, Utah. This is her back and front yard views.

Our son, Jake, is in Chelsea, Michigan. This is his front yard.

The Marx family didn't ever make it to Georgetown. I received the first pictures of these situation from Bailey who enjoyed it from their front porch.

Then Andie sent me these pictures from their front and back doors.

And later in the day she sent Michael and Hayden shoveling the drive. Their driveway has a good slope to it and, if cleared of snow, will melt away quickly if there is any sunshine on it.

Our grandson, Paul, lives in Muskegon, Michigan. They literally had a blizzard there. He couldn't open the back door of their home.

Our son-in-law, Todd, sent his first picture from Muskegon, Michigan. It is out front of where they work.

Then, when they got home, he sent these pictures from their home in Holton, Michigan.

Finally, I received pictures from Katelyn, our first-born grandmonster. She lives in Muskegon, Michigan. The first two are Drew shoveling the cars out between storms. I remember doing this in Maryland. You know you are doing it and you know full well there is another foot coming. So much easier on the body to do that shoveling often rather than when it is finished. 

Katelyn also sent these pictures of their yard.

I saved this one for last. Katelyn sent one of their home with the snow and the icicles on it. It could have been on a Christmas card from when I was a kid. Inside of that home are a family of five, and exchange student from Sao Paulo, Brazil, a dog and a couple of cats. Amazing. Grateful they have this home to keep them safe and warm. The first time we went to visit Nissa and family after they moved to Michigan was a Christmas time. I remember being amazed at all the buildings with these huge icicles going to the ground on them. 

So this storm affected a lot of people. I have read headlines where a woman missed her wedding because the flights were canceled. Another missed the funeral of her mother because the flights were canceled. Lots of disruption. Buffalo was literally buried in the snow. Many people have died because of this freezing weather. I feel very blessed that we only missed being with each other on Christmas Day. We would find another day to visit the Marx family. We were all safe and had homes to be in. That is such a huge blessing. Huge.

Tuesday, December 27th, I have an ophthalmologist appointment. I ventured out and found the main streets in Georgetown safe to travel. 

Wednesday, December 28th, Claude and I went to the temple. After we finished there, we drove to the Marx home. We took presents and smoked brisket to have lunch with them. We watched a movie together and had our Christmas experience. Then hurried back home before it got too dark. The Marx family gave us t-shirts. Mine says "Bacon is the Greatest" and Claude's says "This is not a Drill". I made scarves for everyone for Christmas. The second picture is the Marx family in their scarves (Bailey, Andie, Michael & Hayden). 

We gave each of the Mini's a Lego set. Bailey has put hers together and sent this picture of the finished project. It was funny that she stated she wanted a Lego set that was flowers. Amazingly, I had already purchased this one. 

We had a very cold Christmas Day but lots of warm hearts shared with family across the miles. Baby, it was very cold outside!!