The Blizzard that never was...

For a week, the only thing the weather channel or news weathermen could talk about was this gigantic storm that was coming... it was heading straight for us and was going to clobber us. Well, it came and went and we have 2-3 inches to speak of and wind. To be fair, about 12 hrs before it got here, they backed off from their initial foot predictions and said their blizzard predictions were solely based off of the 40+ mph gusts. Okay, 2nd most disappointing snowstorm ever. Top would have been about a week and a half ago. Similar to my location in STL, we are located right on a line that separates pressure zones. About 5 miles from here, they pulled in 8 inches, we... got an inch. GRR. Anyways, I'm hoping for better snows as the winter season starts.

Right about now, we're so grateful for the countless hours spent when we first arrived installing insulation, caulking, weatherstripping and cutting wood. As they say, every little bit helps. Every draft we feel as we walk about the house results in approx an hour job undoing the previous insulating and working to cut off the draft entirely. The news just reported that we're coming in at -13 wind chill with a possible -40 wind chill throughout the night. We've got the fireplace running 24/7 and are finding our lounging chairs inching closer and closer to stay warm.

Aside from a major production in churning out Christmas cards last night, we clipped the Juniper tree we found on the property to the proper shape of a tree and are planning on adding lights and ornaments tomorrow.

How is it that Christmas is only 13 days away? It has certainly snuck up this year. I ordered the first gift I plan on giving this year and already, it won't be delivered in time for Christmas. OOps. On the positive side, we are about a week away from the shortest day of the year! We'll be adding an extra minute to the evening every day starting somewhere around the 20th! I'm stoked!

As for other matters, Joel has been doing some contract work for a firm in STL the past few weeks and I think it's been very nice for him to get back in the game and keep his skills sharp. Good for him :) He continues to search for job prospects, but the leads and postings just are not panning out. I believe that all of this is happening for a reason and I'm sure our health has improved greatly since moving out here to the boonies. We are 10 min from the closest town and 25-30 min from the Quad cities. We're out here and I love it. Soooo much less stressful. It's just a known thing that we go to the city once a week and hang out with different family friends for entertainment. The past few weekends, there have been Christmas walks in the surrounding towns where you visit businesses from 3-7pm and they hand out cookies and refreshments and you sign up for drawings and prizes. It all ends in a closing ceremony or caroling/concert where you see everyone in town and the announcers refer to main public figures in town only by their first name. It's adorable. Everyone knows everyone and they all know that they don't know you.

So, life's been great. No complaints. Looking forward to spending Christmas in STL with my family and sending Joel up to SD again to play with the relatives.

Our cat continues to weather the weather outside. She mustn't be a big fan of the 'blizzard' like conditions of last night as she meow-ed at our bedroom window(this is a first) for an hour this morning. She really believes she is an indoor cat, and I'm really sure that she isn't. She's grown plenty of fur just for this purpose and we've started supplementing her food with excess fat from any meat we cook - she loves that. As it gets even colder outside, we'll just have to see how well we tolerate each other :)

Okay, off to watch the rest of Sunday Night Football and stoke the fire.