Let It Snow

The forecast was mixed for last Friday.  There were rumors of snow but hey, its Georgia, we don’t get a lot of snow.  I didn’t even rush out to buy bread and milk.  That’s how little thought I gave it. 

About once a year we get just enough snow or ice (usually ice) to sled for a few hours.  After looking outside Friday morning I didn’t think we would even have that much.  So I planned a stay-inside-and-"make"- gingerbread-houses day.  Don’t think I bake my own gingerbread and create elaborate cookie house plans…we don’t even buy the pre-made put-it-together-yourself houses.  For my kids it’s all about the candy.  We buy pre-made houses.  Brilliant product.  Or in this case pre-made and pre-broken houses.  Shoot?  I was going to have to run to the store.  And I might as well stock up on movies and hot chocolate for the inevitable house full of teenagers I’m about to get since they just announced school would get our early…

I hesitated to go out in this.  Why?  Because southerners lose their ever-loving minds once the snow starts to stick to the road.  I like to think I'm an excellent driver in snow and ice.  But one does run the risk of having some idiot plow into you if you decide to drive in the snow.

I call this photo "Panic at the Walmart"

I may or may not have stopped at McDonald's on the way home and by the time I got there the porch looked like this. Wow.  That's actual snow.  Impressive for Georgia.  

I think I'll measure it.

Wow 2.5 inches. The kids will love this.  "D" came home early and we had a great plan.

Meanwhile I ignored my kids.  Ahhhh.  Having teenagers is the best.  I did have a motherly feeling (don't worry it passed quickly) and took a photo of my child making a snowman. Southern snowmen always have mud and leaves and grass embedded in them.

Our old girl came to life in the snow.  Most days she has trouble just getting up but as soon as she set foot in the snow she began to jump and frolic.  

The snow kept falling.  It was really heavy wet snow.  Then disaster, the power went out.  No worries, I'll read for a while on my fully charged IPad.  Maybe 30 minutes later I heard a horrific sound.  A tree had fallen into the front yard.  But not OUR tree.  It was the neighbors 90 foot pine!  And of course you know what means....its time to hang out in the street with the neighbors and discuss.

All around us we heard cracking and popping as limbs and trees crashed down.  There was also an alien sounding "thwump" followed by eerie green lights in the sky as transformers blew all around us.

The snow sure was pretty though.  Before we went to bed (in our cold dark house) the snow was almost 7 inches on the back porch.  That's by far the most snow we've had in Georgia since I've lived here.

We got some rain and sleet over night and then more snow.  By morning we had more than 9 inches of accumulation.  Hey, be honest, that's a decent snowfall almost anywhere except maybe Buffalo.

It's been years since I've done this.  At least the milk won't spoil.

Since it was really cold in the house and I couldn't (without great effort and digging out old camping gear) cook,  "D" and "T" and I went in search of hot food.  The roads weren't bad but not much was open.

We just kept saying "look how pretty it is"

My trees were really weighted down.

 

Another day another snowman. Behind the boy you can barely see the top of the pine tree.  It doesn't look too bad.

Seriously I think we can just drag it across the street.

We didn't have power for over 50 hours.  We were cold and miserable and ready to kill each other before it came on LATE Sunday night.  We were literally packing for a hotel when the power returned.

After the power was restored, and the snow had melted, and the power crew had repaired the lines, we went down to check out the damage.  The neighbor's massive tree had fallen on the power lines, which created a chain reaction snapping two power poles in half and ripping the power lines out of our other neighbor's house. 

The power crew had so kindly put the cut up chunks of the tree in our yard.  Thanks guys.  This may not look bad but that trunk is easy 15 inches in diameter and extends 20 or more feet into our yard.  Georgia has this supper silly law that says if someone's tree falls in your yard...it's your problem.  Well good, I totally don't have a thing on my calendar seeing how it is December, and we have kids, and a life and all.

Maybe I'll just go hang some ornaments on it and forget about it till mid January.

Its a good thing the power was already out because these lines lay across the street for 2 and a half days.  I guess this was the situation all over town so nothing was getting fixed fast.

What A Difference A Year Makes

It was really hard to carve out time for a photo shoot this year.  Between being sick and getting the kids rounded up...we basically ran out of time.  And when we finally did have a free day the temps dropped to somewhere around freezing.  I only took 37 photos before it started to rain.  

We opted to drive into the city and use street murals as our back drops.  I really wish the weather had been nicer because we had a lot of fun.

 "T" says this is the BEST photo EVER.

I never posted last years photo shoot.  Wow look how much they've grown. Especially "T" he grew about 6 inches and probably 50 pounds.

Jamaica

Jamaica is another port that people love to hate.  Yes there is a lot of crime in Jamaica but that doesn't mean you avoid Jamaica, it means you make smart choices.  The port did have a lot of security.  Sometimes it's hard to know if that makes you feel more secure or less secure.  

So, our smart choice was hiring a driver/guide for the day.  He picked us up and took us where ever we wanted to go.   In our case we wanted to see Irie Blue Hole, get real Jamaican Jerk for lunch and do a little shopping.  We felt very safe all day.  

Blue Hole is a series of waterfalls and swimming holes which are usually clear and blue.  But because Jamaica had several days of rain prior to our visit the water wasn't blue or clear.  I didn't have a great day here-there were too many ships in port and the place was crazy crowded and we were rushed through like an assembly line.  I had read so much about this place and I knew our experience was subpar compared to what I read about.  The good news was that the kids had a lot of fun.  They literally didn't know what they were missing.  

I mean this seriously differs ....

from this.....

But the kids had a blast.

After Blue Hole we went to the grocery store and souvenir shopping then we headed to Scotchies for lunch.  "D" loves jerk chicken so I wanted to make sure he go to try the real deal.  WOW!  I was so surprised.  The chicken we had was really mild.  It had very little "jerk" flavor.  I mean, it was delicious but very different than what I imagined. 

We made it back to port in plenty of time.  I won't name names but several members of my family napped almost the whole way back. 

"J" loved Jamaica.  This smile is genuine.  No bribery needed.  

And "T" was happy to get the last Auntie Anne's pretzel in port.  He's a trooper.  He is not an adventurous eater to say the least.  I was pretty impressed that he tried the jerk chicken-even if it was only a tiny bite.

The two ladies who bought pretzels before us nearly missed their ride on Liberty of the Seas.  My favorite part of cruising is the Sailaway.  Tonight I got to watch Liberty leave port ahead of us.

That's really it for vacation photos.  With all the kids activities, school and sports who knows when we will find time to travel again.  Not to mention how hard it is to find a house sitter for all of our pets.  "J" definitely wants to cruise again.  I think I could be convinced to book again if we can get our original itinerary.  "T" says all he needs is a weekend in a "fancy" hotel.  He is so easy to please. For now I am happy to catch up with laundry and get ready for Thanksgiving.