Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!

So, who would've thunk it, but we're snowed in! Here in the Las Vegas area we experience a little snow every once in a while, but it is really coming down today! Here's a shot of me at the library (it was wear a hat to work day at the Gibson Library - and it ended up being functional!) when the snow started sticking. At this point the snow had been coming down in flurries for a couple of hours...as the day progressed it snowed harder and harder. By about 3:00pm or so, someone from the city courthouse across the street came in and told us they were closing down the courthouse and sending everyone home because it was getting unsafe for people to be out on the roads. So, we contacted our main branch and our director said we'd probably remain open. A few minutes later he called back and asked how the access was to our front door - at this point in time Kevin and Maggie have gone to get more salt and a better shovel and have been shoveling and salting to try to avoid anyone slipping and getting hurt. A few minutes later Tom calls back and says to close down when we can get everyone out, or by 5pm, whichever comes first. Needless to say, we were able to clear the building out pretty quickly!

So we start heading out after pushing inches and inches of snow off our windshields, mirrors, and windows. It takes me about 20 minutes to get two and half miles or so when I get a phone call from AJ (Jimmy's little brother) saying he's stuck. He left the library the same time as I did and he drives a little Mazda Miata. He got stuck and couldn't get up a little hill, his car kept slipping and slipping. So, I turned around and headed back to him, swooped him up and headed for home. The progress was slow going. I talked to Jimmy off and on on the way home and I swear he wasn't taking me seriously about how much snow was on the roads and how scary it was to drive.

I drive an Infiniti FX35, which apparently is equipped with a snow feature. I turned it on and it seemed to help. Jimmy drives a little Hyundai Tiburon, so I was nervous he would get stuck, but he made it home! When he pulled in he was so excited to play in the snow that he jumped out and starting playing in his suit - he's a goofball! When Hannah heard him, she ran out to meet him, but she sunk all the way up to the tippy top of her legs! Poor thing - she hates the cold! I coaxed Jimmy in to put on appropriate attire and he and AJ went back out to play. I was trying to make a contraption out of a plastic bag to put over my camera to photograph them without getting it all wet - but they came in before I was done! I did see Jimmy try to do a slip and slide type maneuver in the snow - to which my mom said - he's too old for that! No kidding!! Here's a picture of what the snow looked like after Jimmy had been home for about two hours - check out the accumulation of snow on his car (the red one) in just that amount of time.

I saw on the Channel 3 News website tonight that the Clark County School District schools will be closed tomorrow for a snow day - in Vegas! Crazy!! I hope I get a snow day tomorrow too! We're supposed to get more snow throughout the night, so I guess we'll see what's out there in the morning!

Our friends from San Diego, Amber and Lorenzo, are supposed to come out to Vegas tomorrow. Amber's little sister is turning 21 so it's a Vegas Vacation - but the freeway is closed between Baker and Primm right now...I hope they can make it out!

In other news, we finally got our Christmas tree up - so no grinches here! We put it up on Sunday after many temper tantrums thrown by myself (sorry Jimmy!). Here's a photo of the tree. When we moved into our house we went from getting a real tree each year to our artificial tree (it was also the same year I got a new car and I couldn't see leaving pine needles in my car or in my house!). Every year since we have had the artificial tree we've decorated it in some sort of theme. The tree is pre-lit with white lights and we theme our colors. We've done a red and gold tree and a blue and silver tree. This year for something new, but still economical, I thought we'd do a silver and gold tree using ornaments from both of the previous themes. Well, as I'm going through my ornaments I find that all I have that are silver and gold are bows. No ornaments. So, I debate with myself for a while on if I should just put bows on the tree and call it good, but decide I can't do that! So, instead we reverted to our hodge-podge tree and I love it! I am feeling quite sentimental because growing up we didn't have themed trees - we had favorite ornaments, ornaments we laughed at and ornaments that had to absolutely be hung on the tree by ourselves. So, decorating the tree this year really brought back childhood memories of Christmas. AJ and Autumn were on hand to help us decorate, but I didn't take any photos while decorating...and had to have them pose afterwards instead. But, I love the finished product - this picture is one of my favorites! Luckily they were around - so Autumn got a really cute picture of us too...check it out. So, with only a week left until Christmas Day I still have most of my shopping to complete, some crafting to do and I would love to bake some cookies. If only we could have a snow day tomorrow, I might at least get some crafting and baking done!!