Well La Niña has certainly been Exciting

We are just finishing up the third of three back-to-back storms. The first, which came before Christmas, was a two-foot snow dump. The second was an inch of ice, which coated everything with, well, an inch of ice. And the third was another foot of snow--so far! It's still coming down, although the meteorology folks are saying that we're mostly done with the snow, and the next Exciting Thing will be wind all night.

The ice storm brought a power outage, but for us it was only brief. The storm had started Christmas Day, while my ham was on the oven! Oh, the suspense! But we didn't lose power until the following day, and we got it back by the following morning (the 27th). Others in my neighborhood were less fortunate and stayed off for 2-3 days.

Photo credit: Amanda Bohman/News-Miner

DL and I had always hand-shoveled, until I broke my leg right before a snowstorm, and we were worried about keeping the driveway cleared for me to get to my surgery Monday morning. DL decided to buy a snowblower last summer, and boy howdy, this was the year to do it!

The snowblower could even handle the thick, wet snow that came during the ice storm! I was super impressed! The parts that we had to hand-finish (the tight corners and walkways near the house) were very frustrating. The wet snow stuck to our shovels. UGH!

The last storm had nice fluffy powder again. Shoveling a foot of it was no problem! Nothing makes you appreciate what you have (electricity, fluffy snow) like having it taken away and then returned!

Anyway, here are some photos from our Christmas adventures.

Our last, clean-out-the-fridge pre-Christmas meal: A tiny bit of baked spaghetti, a tinier bit of chicken curry, pork buns from the frozen section of the Chinese grocery store, and some miscellaneous veggies:

My Very Enthusiastic Kitchen Helpers!

The ham made it with no power outage! Yay!

Post-dinner snuggles:

Then the next day came the ice storm + power outage! We have both Coleman and battery-operated lanterns for our main lighting, but I love this candle because it was a gift from one of my Sili Valley bosses, and I've kept it all this time because it's so stable and un-tip-over-able.

OK let us talk ham leftovers. My favorite ham breakfast so far: Grilled ham, egg, and cheese sammiches:

My favorite ham dinner: Mac n cheese with ham and broccoli:

Mmmmm!

Ham and veggie noodles:

Miss Thistle is So Kind as to make sure the bok choy is Acceptable:

And Miss Cricket is So Kind as to check the carrots:

Apparently they are both okay!

Thank you, Your Royal Highness!

Here is Cricket channeling Linden: Curled up batting her eyes like a baby caribou:

Here is what we woke up to this morning. Remember, we had freshly cleared two prior storms within a week!

DL had just cleared the snow off the porch roof overhang, so this is from the one storm:

It's up to my mid-calves!

DL almost always clears a path to the outhouse first. I remember doing this myself before DL came along. I'm very grateful to have a good partner who helps share the burdens of life.

I'm sure glad that they are comfy and undisturbed by any of the storms! I would hate for them to be inconvenienced in any way!