Christmas Day Last Hurrah

Our White Christmas was a doozy this year! Lots of old snow, and lots of new snow.....

I love these top hats on the posts!

Looking off of our front porch

A couple of shots of that long, thick icicle off the house

Path off our front deck. The snow was deep.

The 'kids' all arrived late morning by hiking in, and by 3:30 PM all of us except Darrell were hiking back out. I had to work the next day, Bethany J needed to get out to say goodbye to all of her friends, and everyone else lives down in Monroe. We packed our backpacks and suitcases and started the trek up to the top of the switchback and beyond. Here you can also see one of our cars stuck in the ditch.

The two Bethany's come upon a fallen tree

She has the cat-child Gideon in that carrier!

The Fed-Ex van that has been stuck and abandoned on our switchback since Dec. 12 is completely buried now! You better hope you didn't have any packages on this van!

Trudging along.....

Now to back-up Ryan's truck to a spot where he can turn around. He keeps getting stuck in the snow bank.

Scott tries to direct him from the rear...

It takes one hour to back up as far as it might take 20-30 seconds to drive forward without snow. Now to shovel out a road to back into so we can turn around. It is after 5 PM by now, and getting dark.

Darkness overtakes us...

Driving slowly out, we cut through one small tree, then come upon one that is too big to cut through with our hand saw. The boys try to, but it is pointless. Trees continue to fall around us. We call a 'neighbor' who is just sitting down to Christmas dinner, but he and his two adult sons drive out in their tractor with a chain saw to help us. Here is the light from the tractor coming down the road... bringing a different kind of savior for us!

All the men try to get at the tree, but it is too high. They cut the branches off that are blocking the road so we can drive under. But we don't quite fit. The tractor creates a packed snow ditch so we can move up to the higher side of the tree, and we finally drive through! By now it is about 6:30. Three hours after leaving the house, we have traveled 1 1/2 miles! We are cold, feeling trapped and oppressed, but not down for the count!

Downtown, Ryan's neighbors have built a life-size igloo in their front yard!

This snow has been beautiful, but if anyone wishes for a White Christmas next year, watch out! I may come wielding a weapon! Enough, already!!!