Bring on the Snow!!!

It's not that we haven't had snow.  We've had to shovel a couple of times.  But THIS time, it was a huge storm.  It started snowing Saturday night.  On Sunday morning, only 10 people showed up at church.  A lot of them were snowed in.  In some instances, the snow plows come by and dump 3 feet of snow or more at the end of their driveways and they can't get out.

All during church it snowed.

Yeah, our car was clean before we pulled into the parking lot.  This is about 60 minutes of snow.

It snowed all day.

AND, it snowed all night last night.  We had shoveled a few times yesterday, and I got up and shoveled again this morning.

This is the pile of snow that the plow left yesterday afternoon.  Our snow plow man hasn't been back yet this morning, hence the snow still on the ground.

I woke up to this beautiful scene.  The sun is shining.  The snow is beginning to drip from the roof.  The side of the car facing the sun is completely melted.  The other side of the car is ice, and I told Craig he should pull the car into our parking spot the other way and let the sun do its thing.

Those of you who don't know our car, it is the second from the right.  

See how I've cleaned it off so well???  Notice the pile of snow in front of our car.  Yeah, we aren't planning on going anywhere soon.

Everyone is saying this is the first "big" storm of the winter.  Maybe we'll get a snowman made.

Here is a good picture of the accumulated snow.

We went to Dorothy's house last Thursday.  We've been raking and burning her leaves since October.  We wanted to burn the rest of the leaves but the pile was frozen solid.  Here's a good picture of Craig hanging out out while we all decided what to do.

AND, speaking of Craig, his birthday was this month.  At our zone meeting, he was presented with a cupcake, AND we all sang a primary birthday song.  He's sharing the limelight with one of the Sister Missionaries on the left.  The Mission President's wife is on the right.

We have a sister missionary who looks a lot like Chantel Calder, my sweet daughter-in-law.  I think it's uncanny.

In the mission home, President Woodbury has a "mission map".  The BG area at the top is Buffalo Grove. Not sure what is right under that, but then comes Chicago.  At the bottom is VAL, which stands for Valparaiso.  That's where we are.  See the arrow pointing to the east? See the arrow pointing south?  Craig's finger is pointing to where we actually are: about an hour south of the bottom of the map.  Hmmm, out of sight, out of mind???

After the first big snow, Sam's scratching log was covered with ice.  Our neighbor built him a scratching post.  He LOVES it.

AND he also likes snuggling in the coats.  OK, maybe this picture was posed.

Every other month, we have a dinner in Chicago for the senior missionaries.  We haven't always attended these, well, because it takes over two hours to get there and sometimes we are busy.  But we decided to go to the last one.  I wanted to take a dessert that would be spectacular.  

Oh yeah, it was as good as it looks.  I made it again yesterday for the Branch Break-the-Fast.  Then church was cancelled and we had all this left over.  We dished up several bowls and distributed it to neighbors.  We were popular.

Craig took me and the sister missionaries to feed the horses.  They were at the far end of the field.  When we called them, they came right over.

I'll end with a few more winter pictures.  Other than being very cold, the snow is beautiful.

This is our city park.

I took the following picture on one of my walks.  I have it on my phone screen.  It was NOT taken in black and white.  Dreary days make the world appear that way.

Driving can be hazardous.  This was taken coming home from Pat's house - about 8 miles away.

Even with the snow, I can't tell you how much we love the people here.  We are missing them already and still have six weeks to go.