Sunday, January 03, 2010

White Christmas

I experienced my very first white Christmas this year! A week before Christmas a blizzard hit the east coast, including central Virginia. My parents' house had about a foot and a half of snow by the end of the storm. The last time I can remember us having that much snow there was over ten years ago, I think it might have been 1996? In that storm I remember us measuring out 21" and getting out of school for quite awhile. In this new storm, my sister and nieces were visiting and ended up staying until Christmas because the roads weren't clear enough to drive home (an hour away) until 2 days before Christmas! So instead of driving home and then back again the next day, they just stayed.

When we arrived a few days before the holiday, there was still about a foot on the ground. It wasn't until we left on New Year's Day that it was really disappearing and looking more like what we expect a VA winter to look like. I was joking to Tim when we arrived there that usually we get rain on Christmas instead of snow. Ironically, we had freezing rain which turned to rain on Christmas day. Good old Virginia.

In contrast, it has been snowing in MA most of the time since we returned Friday night. It looks like we will have quite the snowy winter this season. I don't expect VA to get MA-like snow again this season, but it looks like MA certainly isn't going to get any less than usual. At least we have the plows and infrastructure to deal with constant snow; I can't imagine being snowed in for more than a day at most!

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