More snow than we know what to do with

The snow started at exactly 9:00pm on Friday night, just as the weatherman predicted. When we woke up at 7:00am, we already had 6 inches on the ground. The snow didn't stop falling until 9:00pm on Saturday night. All told, we got a little less than 2 feet. The Washington, D.C. metro area doesn't get snow like this - EVER! If we are lucky, we sometimes get 6 inches and even that is rare.

In my opinion, this was the perfect snowstorm. It came on a weekend when plans could easily be rescheduled and we weren't missing anything super-duper important (Sorry Heather! We WILL get together for your birthday outing!!). We didn't have any travel plans. There wasn't any kind of holiday shopping that needed to occur and staying in for 48 hours with the family was even kind of appealing. I can honestly say, 2 days later, we all still genuinely like each other and could very well spend another couple of days together before needing to interact with other individuals besides my immediate clan.

Jeff and I got a shocker of a surprise. After the kids went to sleep on Friday, we set-up the wii and created the appropriate looking mii for each of us. I had an idea to create a mii for Ian and surprise him the next morning. He has never really seen a wii before and this would all be new for him. Jeff thought that maybe he was too young and wouldn't be able to fully grasp the concept. I've done my research and everyone says that 4 year olds really like wii bowling. As soon as Ian woke up on Saturday, I showed him the wii and the mii we created to look like him. I thought I did a pretty good job making him look like Ian, but after a few tweaks being directed by Ian, he was able to transform the mii to even more of a resemblance. Ian even gave his mii some blue sunglasses to wear. I showed Ian how to play bowling. After a few frames, he was able to master how to hold the remote, but didn't really take to it. We moved on to wii tennis and I was instantly blown away at watching him play. It was like Andre Agassi had come alive in my family room. Ian was a natural. He was serving like a superstar (from the first try) and volleying back and forth 8 or 9 times. It was almost like he had been practicing for years. But since I know what he does and where he goes every day, I know this isn't the case. Boxing, golf and baseball were all hits too. We'd show him how to do it once and he would instantly get it and be able to play. Ian loved the games and really got into them. As he was hitting the tennis ball back and forth, he'd shout to the tv, "Keep it coming, baby". Still not sure where he is picking up language like this, but it was really funny.

While Ian and Jeff were playing the wii, Sam was having a tea party and playing with Lego's. I decided to tackle cleaning the house and got 3 uninterrupted hours to do so. It was wonderful. Jeff went out twice and did some shoveling to keep up with it. When Sam woke up from her nap, we bundled the kids in layers and ventured outside to play. It was then we've come to the realization that our kids prefer a nice warm house over being outside in the cold, trying to navigate and walk in snow that comes up past their knees. It took us longer to dress and undress the kids for the snow, then the amount of time spent outside. Of course, we got the obligatory pictures we needed to take.

Later in the afternoon, Ian and I had fun making sugar, cut-out cookies and frosted them in some wacky colors (think army green and turquoise blue).

Before we knew it, it was time to put the kids to bed. I decided to watch my netflix film ("Julie and Julia" -- good movie!) and Jeff watched some football. The day went surprisingly fast.

On Sunday, we were able to dig ourselves out in under 4 hours. I shoveled for 2 hours and Jeff did 2 hours. We put Sam down for a nap and then it's off to Ikea when she wakes up. I have some organization and decorating ideas I'd like to implement. Please, I can't possibly spend that much time indoors and not think of things I want to change. :)

As we were watching the snow fall and pile up higher and higher on Saturday, Jeff was pretty certain that he wouldn't make it to work on Monday. By early evening Sunday, the Federal Government announced that they will be closed today and Fairfax County schools announced they will by closed for the next 3 days, leading up to Winter Break and open again in the new year. It looks like my Toppall team will be staying close to home for at least another day. It's good thing we are all still getting along.