Missing the Blizzard

So this probably seems silly, but even though I am quite happy to be here in Idaho spending Christmas vacation with my family, I am kinda bummed that we are missing the craziness back there in Virginia! I've never been in a blizzard, and tho I am sure it's a big pain in some ways, I wish it had waited until we were back home for New Years!

It's probably not going to be a White Christmas here... right now it's just gray, with a 'slight' chance of snow for next week. Oh, well, at least we can leave the house, huh?!

If I don't get back here before the big day....

Merry Christmas to you all!! Be safe if you are in Virginia or other areas affected by the "Blizzard of '09".... and remember -

Christ the Saviour is Born!!

Traveling....

Two days and 300 loads of laundry to go before we leave on our Christmas journey....

Snow!!

Woke up to this view this morning.....

And it's getting thicker......

and yes, I went out on the balcony in my barefeet.....

...'cause that's how I roll.

So...it's December

The stockings are hung... sort of...

The Nativities are set out... (well, the bookcase was empty anyway... the books are all still in storage) There was more greenery and a really nice Hurricane lamp on the top corner of this.... but I cleaned up the shards of that this morning about 6am... apparently the cat tried to investigate up there....

The cat is still getting in on the action....

How is it that Christmas can sneak up on me when it comes at exactly the same time every year?? Like...duh. We are leaving in one week to go to Idaho for Christmas, and of course I have more than a week's worth of work to do first.

The place is all decorated, and looks pretty nice despite having a cheesy fake Christmas tree. I swore I would never have a fake tree, but since we aren't actually going to be here for Christmas, and will be unable to water the thing, and wanted to put one up early and take it down late (I mean, I will be gone for 2 weeks, so I want to enjoy the thing I spend so much time decorating!!) well, having a bone-dry fire hazard in an empty apartment just didn't seem like a good plan. Of course we are financially strapped so we could only afford a cheap artificial tree - so, bonus good!! Yay us. It looks alright though. Actually, it looks pretty nice. Huh. Whooda thunk it.

It started out pretty awful.....

But it turned out looking presentable!