Snow Day 2011

This year we received one of the top 3 blizzards on record in Chicago. They were predicting it for about a week and as it kept approaching everyone was all abuzz about the pending doom. The blizzard was set to start Tuesday at 3 thru Wed morn. Pretty much everyone at work had already decided they weren’t coming in wednesday if it was as bad as predicted and I prayed my boss would just close shop and keep everyone from having to make that call. God answered my prayers. We got out at 2pm on Tuesday and were closed Wednesday. Yay!

As I drove home the winds and road conditions were already starting to deteriorate and that was just the beginning. We both made it home safely and settled in for what was one of the windiest nights ever. I could barely sleep because the wind was so bad. (we have awfully drafty, whistly, windows). We awoke with no alarm, which was wonderful. I tried to peak outside on our patio but the screen was so covered with snow I couldn’t see.

We threw on our coats over our pjs and stepped into our hallway to see outside. The walkway to the parking lot was completely covered, and not just covered, BURIED. I can’t recall ever seeing so much snow before, though apparently I survived the 2nd worst blizzard on record too in 1999. Where was I then?

We took some pics and came back inside to settle into a bonifide snow day! How fun! I made chocolate chip pancakes to start us off right and they were yummy! Then we made a list of everything we wanted to get done on our fun day. I think we started out watching episodes of The Office. Then we relaxed for a while before bundling up and heading outside to asses the damages and enjoy the snow.

Our cars were not buried but without a little shovel help there was no way we would be able to back up over the snow piled behind our cars from the plows coming through. We did get to meet several neighbors we hadn’t before. We shoveled for a while and then took a walk in the snow. It was so deep, about 2 feet. Fun times. We worked up an appetite so I made hummus for lunch with mango lhasi (kinda like a mango yogurt smoothie).

We watched more of the Office and then John went out to shovel out his car. In the meantime I made snow cream which is something I had heard of from John’s family but never made. I just so happened to find a recipe a few days before the blizzard so that worked out great. It actually tasted really good, like slushie vanilla ice cream. So we downed that and then warmed up again with some hot chocolate and marshmallows. What snow day would be complete without hot chocolate?

The cream

+ The snow

= The snow cream

Even though we were off the whole day it still seemed to go by fast. But I really enjoyed all of it. I can’t say I was really excited about all the snow or how long I know it will stick around but it was great to have an extra paid “holiday”.

WE SURVIVED SNOWMAGEDDON 2011!