Well, we had quite the snowstorm yesterday! My office closed at noon. after reports of whiteout conditions, I have to point out, even though all the weather forecast told us it was coming...

My normal 20-25 minute drive home was about an hour and 15 minutes, and there were times when the only thing that kept me from plowing into the car in front of me or running off the road was my constant praying. I was terrified!

But I made it home safely, and like a good Oklahoman turned on the news to watch the storm coverage. The "highlights" were a 50-car pileup and a 10-12 hour wait for towing service. Emergency services (ambulance and fire) were pretty much at a standstill with everyone else. Lots of people were stranded in stalled cars, and they started sending out buses to take people to shelters. The ~50 mph wind gusts made it futile to run the snow plows because it would just fill back in as soon as they plowed it. Plus, it's hard to plow around all the stalled cars. The news people weren't very sympathetic, but I imagine a lot of the people stranded were like me who went to work that morning expecting the office to close as soon as the storm started, but their employers just had to have those few extra hours. Not that I'm bitter...

DH stayed at the hospital since it was much, much worse last night than when I left work. They'd closed all the interstates, and none of the side streets were being plowed yet. One of the residents had an SUV, so she took a bunch of people from this part of town home this morning. So happy DH ended up getting more time at home today than we'd expected, even though I hate the circumstances.

We made bacon and eggs for breakfast, and then opened our presents to each other. We've had a nice, relaxing day. It's bright and sunny (but still below freezing), so we went out and played in the snow for a little while. I think they'll be able to get the roads cleared today, so hopefully he won't have any trouble driving to work in the morning. Or (what I'm secretly hoping) maybe the resident will take them back so they can get their cars.

Some pictures of our Winter Wonderland:

Our little gnome being buried in the snow:


Snowdrift starting to pile up at our back door:


This morning, an even bigger snowdrift:


My cat, Silver, looking out the kitchen window trying to figure out what happened to the back yard:


When DH called to say he was going to come home, I decided I could help by clearing some of the snowdrift from in front of the house:




This afternoon, we made a snowman and snow angels:






And DH rescued our little gnome!