Just Kidding

As I thought, the large amount of snow that was forecast hit east of us. We received about 6 inches in 4 hours on Thursday night, but that was about it. The roads were still bad and we had to shovel out, again. We are supposed to get another inch or two here and there through Sunday. Not the big storm we all hoped for but it does add a nice soft layer to continue our Greeley snowshoeing adventures. The old snow was getting a bit crunchy and tough for the dogs to tread through. Happy New Year!

Another Blizzard?

Last week was amazing with more snowfall than I have ever seen on the plains here in Colorado. I was making dinner on Monday night wondering when we would see another storm like our last blizzard. On Tuesday morning I turned on the tv to my favorite station (The Weather Channel of course) and hear that we might be in store for another blizzard. Remember though, there have been forecasts for Greeley blizzards that turned into 3-6 inches of beautiful powder that melted in 48 hours. That included the blizzard of 2003. I don't know how I feel about more snow. The roads are still bumpy with packed snow (Greeley doesn't believe in plowing or salting side streets) and I have the next two weeks off so there is no hope of another snow day. The dogs would welcome another dumping of snow so they could play "smackdown" with Eric.


Eric and I are hoping to go to the museum of Nature and Science this weekend so I hope the snow doesn't keep us from being the nerds we are. Will we see another foot of snow tomorrow and Friday? I'll keep you posted.

Christmas Eve & The Turkey

With all this time on my hands I just don't know what to do! Therefore I shall blog to keep you all up to date with the happenings here in Greeley over the Christmas Holiday. Christmas Eve was very festive with a wonderful candlelit service at St. Patrick. Then it was off to our house for cookies, chips, dip, and Eric's favorite Christmas Eve tradition, little smokies. I pulled the S'mores maker out and we all sat around the table and enjoyed the company of friends.


Our dogs were surprisingly well behaved. Could their improved behavior be our Christmas miracle? Probably not...more likely it was the 2 mile snowshoeing trek we took earlier in the day.
Late that night Eric started brining his first Christmas Turkey. I helped make the salt, onion, maple syrup mixture and then pour it over our very fine looking 12 pound turkey. We went to bed hoping Santa would be nice to us and Eric arose early to put his Turkey on the grill.

We then opened a mountain of gifts (thanks Moms, Dads, Grandparents, andThe Greenes!) Eric and I finished cooking for Christmas Day at the Chastains and watched A Christmas Story two more times. Eric looks forward to the 24 hour marathon that TBS shows each year.
We are about to have an amazing meal at the Chastain loft. Blayne's parents, The Farnsworths, Mel, Kathy, Eric, and I will enjoy a smoked turkey, ham, and about 10 other side dishes.
Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas with Our Friends

My family sometimes worries that I won't have anyone to spend the holiday's with. Well, here are some pictures of our secret santa party. Deborah, Blayne, Rosemary, Kathy, Libby, Derek, Natalie, and David all braved the remnants of the blizzard to come to our house to enjoy soup and lots of yummy goodies.

Here is Blayne with his antlers.

Eric setting the table for our party.

Eric reading his masterpiece, "Twas the Night Before Christmas, The Parrish Version."

Colorado Blizzard!

It all began Wednesday morning at 6:20am. I got up early for school to enter grades and a glance at my phone showed two missed calls. Who would call me at that hour (other than my dad)? The first was a co-worker telling me school was cancelled and the other was another friend asking if I had heard that school was cancelled! :-) A snow day!! That is something unheard of here in Greeley. The ground was clear, but it was a little windy, so I took Eric to work at 8am. The forecast was for 10-20 inches of snow with winds of 25mph. No one thought it would really happen...these predictions have been made many times with no snow falling here in Greeley. Eric complained the whole time about me getting yet another day off when he had to work. I sensed bitterness in his voice, but the holidays and possible snow days were part of the benefits of teaching todays unruly youth.

I decided to get the rest of my Christmas shopping done before the storm hit and quickly succeeded. No one was brave enough to go out but my Xterra was more than enough to get through the forming drifts. Around lunch time I got home and Eric was calling for me to come get him because the credit union was closing early. It had snowed about 6 inches in the time it took to shop!

When we finally made it home, we wrapped gifts and turned on the blizzard coverage. It was amazing to watch the snow accumulate and Colorado come to a stop. Those poor people at DIA. We were glad that we didn't have plans to head back east over Christmas. We enjoyed a lazy day in our basement watching TV and napping. I got a call saying that school was cancelled Thursday as well so I started my vacation a few days early.


Here is a picture of Eric's car after the storm. My Xterra got priority in the garage.

The snow in our backyard was deep. The drifts "fill up" our yard within our 4 foot fence.

Here is Eric beginning to shovel us out. We had shoveled Wednesday night to let the dogs out, but 10 new inches fell by Thursday morning.

Our front walk took Eric 45 minutes to shovel!

It's not often you can snowshoe through the Fairacre neighborhood. I decided to save some gas and snowshoe around Glenmere Park rather than travel to the mountains. It was just as beautiful-and just as difficult! There were no snowpacked trails to follow, only fresh powder about waist high to trudge through.