Winter!

Winter has finally set in here in northern New York. The temperatures had been mild (dancing around the freezing mark) and the weather very fall-like (only one snow significant for the plows to come out, about 4"), but that was before Friday.

Friday morning, I woke up and looked outside to check the weather (to estimate my drive-time to work). It was raining, as it had been for several days, so I went about my business getting ready for work. By the time I made it down stairs to pack my lunch, I looked out the kitchen window and 2" of snow had already fallen. In the next 24 hours, we would get about 18" of snow, total. I was fortunate they sent me home from work much earlier than I was scheduled (which is 6 p.m.) so that I could drive home in the daylight. My usually 25-ish minute drive home took about an hour, with white-out conditions. If you've never seen white-out conditions, it basically means you can at best see vehicles maybe 40' in front of you, and only if they have their lights on. It also means you can't see the lines on the road, and you have to just guess where to aim your car. I am not a fan of New York.

Nathan was a little horrified at that snow storm. I had been trying to tell him that's what winter is normally like here, but he was deployed last winter and hadn't experienced it first-hand. Luckily for me, he was off work on Friday so he could shovel the driveway before I got home. Last year, I would have had to just leave my car in the middle of the road until I shoveled a space big enough to move my car. That's SUPER safe in white-out conditions and snow plows coming around.

We haven't been doing a lot so far this winter. We made it home for Thanksgiving to see both families, and also made it to the Egg Bowl (Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss football game). Mississippi State won! And thanks to our good friend, Paul, we got great seats. We got to see a lot of our friends, but a lot of friends are also Army, and couldn't make it back for the game. While we were in Starkville, we also got to revisit many of our favorite restaurants. It was hard to get to all the restaurants we wanted to, so we just ate about five meals a day to try to fit it all in :)

For Christmas, Nathan and I decided that as little time as I had off from work, combined with the sky-high prices of plane tickets, we couldn't really get home again. We decided to have Christmas here with some good friends who happen to be neighbors of our here on post. We had a great time, and, of course, ate entirely too much food. We didn't get the White Christmas I had been promised, though. When Nathan found out where he would be stationed after he commissioned, he called me at work to break the news. His exact words were "So... you know how you always wanted a White Christmas? Well, you're going to get one. We're going to Fort Drum." Of course, this was the year of the weirdest beginning of winter in recent history. The only snow we saw on Christmas was a brief flurry that had melted less than 20 minutes after falling.

Nathan and I decided yesterday that we should enjoy the snow if at all possible. We picked out some sleds and took advantage of the sled hill right behind our house. The communities here on post have different featured mini-parks during different times of year. There is also an ice skating rink in the next neighborhood over. I realized I hadn't been sledding in years, so we had a pretty good time. We even took a few turns pushing the kids on sleds to get them going.

Today, we have bright sunshine, but I don't think the temperature has even broken above 0 yet. I don't mean above freezing. I mean above 0. The low overnight was -12. Brrr. Overall, I'd rather never have snow, but never see the negative temperatures. That's just me. I prefer over 100 to below 0.

When do we PCS, again?