Who wants a white Christmas?

We've been to Seattle for Christmas maybe 8 of the last 10 years. In 2006 we had our first white Christmas. It was nice to watch it fall from indoors and have a little snow play. That's the kind of snow I like.


Welcome to the blizzard of 2008. First we had to wait all week to find out whether we'd even make it here since the Seattle airport was closed a couple of days and thousands of people were stranded. We brought chains for the rental car, read up on driving in winter weather, and packed as much snow gear as is owned by people who enjoy minimal snow. The freeway driving was a breeze (I don't think I felt this way at the time, but in hindsight I now know it was pretty easy) and we stopped as planned in the Target parking lot to put on the chains. The chains said "fits any car." We picked a PT Cruiser just for fun and guess what...they didn't fit. It was Christmas day and any place that had chains was probably closed (and if they were open they would be out of chains) so we decided to see just how far we could get toward my brother's house. We made it within two blocks, abandoned the car in the middle of a side street and hiked in with our suitcases.


We had a lovely Christmas and there was a great sledding hill just one house down that we slid down over and over, and the girls had gotten snowball makers so we had a snowball fight as well. We decided not to try to get to the hotel last night because of the icy roads and stayed there hoping for warmer weather and clearer roads today.



It snowed much of the afternoon today which was very pretty to look out at, not quite so much fun to be in. I now know what freezing feels like and I'm reminded why I live in southern CA. Andy and I shoveled the car out before dinnertime (to say it makes it seem so easy...it was not) and we drove slowly to the hotel. All the main streets were plowed so getting here was no big deal. Parking, however was impossible. We tried for awhile to get into an actual parking spot but weren't able to make it more than a few feet so eventually I just backed up (again, to say it makes it seem easy) and we left it under the covered entrance to the hotel in the hopes that there will be less snow tomorrow. We're not going to attempt to go out until late tomorrow morning and hope that the snow has a few more hours to melt. Maybe if it ever got above 35 degrees...


I don't know who was dreaming of a "White Christmas" but it must have been someone who didn't need to leave the house!