Needless to say, we spent Thursday night getting ready for the storm of the century, and planning our early escapes from work on Friday in order to get home safely before the roads closed. Our Nanny arrived in the morning prepared with bags and bags of food (and a dozen donut holes) in the case that she would be stranded at our place with the kids. I knew they were in good hands, but there was no way I was going to let myself get stranded at work.... or worse, stranded on the road while in transit home. (I do still have horrible flashbacks/PTSD of the 6 hrs it took to drive 5 miles home during the last unexpected storm of the century-the one where I flipped out in the car while sitting in traffic and Mike had to come rescue me... driving with me for a couple hours, and then finally kicking me out at the next train stop cause I was driving him crazy.... yeah, that was so NOT fun).
Friday morning went by fast, and I was home by 1pm with Mike not far behind. Then it was time to hunker down and wait for the storm. That night we watched it snow, and snow,....and snow, with winds getting stronger and stronger. We were pretty relaxed, wine in hand while following updates on the news..... and I felt fine. Well, that is, until the lights started to flicker a few times. Then the power went off for a quick 2 seconds and jumped back on. That display sent me straight into a frenzy, running around the house getting all the candles, lighters, blankets, and flashlights placed in strategic spots in case the power actually did go out on us. It left me realizing that things could quickly become miserable if we ended up losing power through this thing, which I'm fortunate and grateful to say we never lost any more than that 2 quick seconds. There are friends out there now that weren't so lucky, and they hope to be getting their power back by tomorrow! I couldn't imagine. Especially after waking up the next morning and realizing they never came to plow our street!
I'd never actually been trapped in the house due to an unplowed street, and this quickly sent me into my next frenzy..... drumming up emergency scenarios about the kids, or where elderly neighbors with cardiac disease or brittle diabetics need emergency medical care and no one was able to get onto or off of our street! What if there was a fire! I called the Braintree snow patrol and got an overworked, exhausted man on the phone who'd pretty much had it, but nevertheless tried to explain to me as nice as possible that there were several broken down plows/trucks, and that all the efforts need to go to keep the main streets clear. Then he says to me that they'll maybe be able to get to our street in 10 hours. Well ok then! Time to stop freaking out and just make the best of it!
Our street, which became the winter playground
We just needed to clear a trail to the neighbors, and the fun could begin
We can't keep Mary and Zoë apart for that long! Here they are, happy to be reunited
snowball fight!
Let's try and get up the hill!
Time for some sledding
Our house blends in with the snow pretty well
Things got even more fun when my neighbor let me use her snowshoes to scale over the snow. Forgot how fun and useful they are in 2-3 feet of powder! I was able to get down to the end of our street and see that the other streets were plowed. So I felt a little less trapped-at least an ambulance could get within 4 houses from us if there was a problem!
Daddy and Zoë taking a hot chocolate break
Then it's time to put the little lady back to work
Little Luca spent his time in the house warm and toasty, and re-organizing our kitchen
One dump truck rescuing the other after a failed attempt at plowing our street!
A little boy's dream come true, bulldozers in front of our house lifting and dumping snow
If we weren't outside shoveling or playing in the snow, we were inside playing our Wii Just Dance games.... and that combined with snow shoveling makes for a very sore arms and legs! We are so thankful we stayed safe through the storm, and are thinking of our friends that still don't have power.
One positive outcome from the storm was that we took it upon ourselves to go a couple houses down the street to make sure neighbors were ok, sadly realizing that it took a big storm for us to get out there and meet our neighbors. Mike spent hours shoveling or snow blowing neighbors driveways, and now I think Vince, Zoë, and Luca have yet another 'grandmother' figure in our 88 year old neighbor Ruth-who lives alone and was so grateful to have her steps and driveway cleared.