Icepocalypseageddonapalooza 2013

Allow myself to introduce…myself.

Wait, have I used that one already? One of the last times I took F-O-R-E-V-E-R to blog? Well, if I did, then you already know who I am. Welcome back!

We have been recently enjoying, hibernating, coping, suffering (pick your most realistic experience-I like people to feel comfortable here) through the Icemageddon 2013. Or Icepocalypse 2013. Again, pick your poison.

For those who haven’t been watching the extreme second-to-second weather coverage here in the metroplex, we had an ice event. Not snow, ice. We had two days out of school and any semblance of normal life, bookending a weekend. Four days of extreme togetherness.

Car is in, ice can fall now!

The garden is ready for the sleet!

We started this adventure by doing the age-old “Is it cancelled?” dance. We have upgraded from staring at the crawl at the bottom of the news to staring at the crawl down the feed of our Twitter pages. We are so advanced.

At the point Thursday night that they finally called no-joy on school for Friday, my heart leapt with joy. The joy of no alarm and no making lunches. I hate making lunches. HATE it. H.A.T.E. it! 

I digress.

While the sleet and freezing rain fell, we ate hearty, cold-fighting soup and pizza sandwiches. We watched the live version of Sound of Music snuggled under blankets in our jammies by the roaring fire. Cue the idyllic music you hear in your head when you look at a Norman Rockwell painting…wait, it probably sounds something like the Sound of Music.

Everyone fell asleep mid-show from apparent boredom and lack of a stellar lead performance (though I must give a shout-out to the Mother Abbess, Audra MacDonald. Killer pipes! Saved the show!) Carrie Underwood can sing, but maybe not the best choice…

Snow (ice) Day One: We spent it sans the hubby, who was still wending his way back from Hong Kong. It was fine, I had done the Texas-prepper-grocery-store-stock-up the day before. We were replete with movies, firewood, cocoa and, thanks to the school fundraiser, frozen cookie dough. Oh, I also got milk and bread. I’m pretty sure it’s the law.

The day dawned grey. The air was filled with a frosty chill and the sound of tiny ice shards bouncing off of the windows and roof. I know because I was there. Awake. Because all three kids slept in until, oh I don’t know, 6:45????? In the A.M. Seriously? The middle child actually ran around to her sisters’ rooms yelling, “Hey! It sleeted!”

Ummm…was someone not paying attention last night?

And it began. The sleds Santa brought a few years back came out. The kids got dressed like Randy from A Christmas Story and went out to sled down the street.  They met up with friends to sled, looking like little hobo gangs, wrapped against the arctic chill. I mean, really, nobody around here has appropriate, coordinated winter gear.

This ice tastes awesome!

So went a full day of sledding, sledding faster, eating cookies, drinking cocoa, sledding more, eating soup, sledding into cars, falling off sleds, crying, watching Christmas movies, eating cookies, drinking cocoa, sledding again, eating pot roast, thawing by the fire and passing out on sofas. Day One, Out.

This is the one who sledded into a car.

The hubby made it home after a treacherous several hours in a cab and hiking up our icy hill after being ditched by the cabbie (to be fair, the hill was soon littered with abandoned cars-we have quite the hill). Yea!

Day Two: See day one, minus the treacherous drive from DFW.

Day Three: Christmas decorations came down from storage and we watched the movie White Christmas as we do every time we put up the tree. The kids passed out again at 8:00-they were tuckered out!

Day Four: No school again! I confess I was pretty stoked. The hubby had to work from home and we did have to go to the orthodontist and gymnastics, but there was more sledding, cocoa and cookies. And we went out to dinner! Ahhh, Ye Olde El Chico!

All in all we had a great break. An enforced slowdown. We played together, created together, decorated together, ate together. We cooked at home, did crafts, shared traditions and made some new ones. I never knew that many rainbow loom creations could be made in one long weekend!

Some people were struggling with being “trapped” with their families and having too much togetherness. I know I don’t know everything going on in everyone’s lives, but I have to say I loved the time of snuggling together in front of the fire with nowhere to go.

People on Facebook said we would “Rue the day” they cancelled school again and “curse these days” in the spring when we had to make them up instead of being off in good weather.

First of all, I rarely “rue the days” I get to spend with my family, free from obligations. Even the holidays are rife with “have-tos”. Secondly, the make-up days are May 23^rd, two weeks from the end of school and stretching Memorial Day weekend into four days. No thanks! And June 6^th, the day after school was supposed to get out and probably 95 degrees already.

The kids went back to school today and I was a little sad. I didn’t miss the ice but I missed them. I’ll be okay. Only 10 more day until Christmas Break!

Punkin Pandemonium 2013

It all started back in 2012. October 31st, 2012 to be exact. It was a balmy day, about 20 degrees warmer than today, but with a light breeze. Something about the impending night of candy and costumes had me feeling nostalgic. Nostalgic for the old days of pumpkin carving, kids playing and neighborly fellowship. 

So I wracked my brain for a solution. What to do? I had a few hours before the kids got out of school so I thought I would run to the store for some good old-fashioned punkins and throw together a shindig. It turned out like this, as you may remember.

This year I had experience on my side, time to plan. I stocked up on punkin carving paraphanalia post-halloween at low, low prices and took some time over the year to collect nostalgic wares for the day.

What I failed to foresee was the apparent "Flower-Plex Punkin Shortage of 2013".

I waited until the day before to get the punkins so they wouldn't be moldy or rotten inside. 

Side note: I know I have been spelling it 'punkin' and not 'pumpkin'. Thank you for noticing!

On the day before Halloween, there were no punkins left in our neck of the woods. None. Wait, no...there were some at that punkin patch but this was after closing time and I had no time on Halloween to get some. 

I checked the top two grocery chains-3 stores each. All out.

The mecca of discount groceries and their red-bullseye counterpart: no mo' punkins.

I went to warehouse stores, hardware stores, even natural grocery stores. I called Corinth, Denton, everywhere!

Finally I found some at the Market Street in Coppell. Yep, this is an endorsement. Because they saved my Punkin Pandemonium. Thank you Market Street.

So, punkins in hand, I forged ahead. I opened the event up to other friends in case they had a little time and a spare punkin, then gathered candy, snacks and beverages-all in the Halloween palette of black, orange, purple and green.

 

I threw down a tarp, set up a "gut-bucket" and waited for the kids. We also planned a pot roast and salad thingy for post-pandemonium-pre-trick-or-treat nourishment. That isn't fun to look at so I didn't take pictures.

The kids came and ate. Spooky music played. Punkins were carved. Only one little mishap with a scraper. A quick triage and a few bandaids and we were good to go. Back in the game.

We did discover that the more detailed the carving, the more people had to work on it. Our family wound up with four punkins instead of five, but they all looked fine.

When I asked them each their favorite part of the soiree, all three kids, independent of each other, made the comment, "That was a good idea to just tape the number over the 2 so you didn't have to paint a whole new sign." Sooooo, that was the take-away? Sigh...

Well, I think it was successful anyway. There was plenty of laughing and fun. We will do it again. and next year, I will start the punkin hunt earlier. At least a day earlier anyway!