Day 8 Better Watch Out!

I have a Christmas village that I dearly love.

Many years ago it was a gift from my husband and kids. It always gets put out when the Christmas tree(s) go up but usually stays out much longer. Why? Because (a) it's pretty, and  (2) I love looking at it,

and (MOSTLY) because it yells “SNOW” !

Like most children and few adults, I love snow. Maybe not as much as I did when I was a kid, but the mere mention of it still makes my heart race a little. There's nothing like the anticipation of seeing those tiny white flakes falling from the sky and hoping for it to stick, wondering "is it possible that we'll get a snow day from school?"

I personally think everyone needs to experience at least one good snow each winter season. Living in Atlanta we don't see it every winter and the times that it does snow is usually just a light dusting.

Some years though, we see a decent amount. Yay, SNOW! Most notable are the snow jams from the early eighties and of course the Blizzard of 1993. Here's Atlanta Snow Jams  a good synopsis of past winters in Atlanta, and also some personal accounts from the first official snow jam 1982, an event that took me 6 hours to drive a normal 30 minute trip to home! And that one in 1993....it was dubbed The Storm of the Century.

Each year I put out my Christmas village and with it comes the hope that this year we will see snow.

And then I don't take it down until the hoped for snow comes. Some years it's been known to stay up through March!

This year the snow came early, a first in over a century white Christmas!

Mission accomplished.

And thus, according to tradition, it was time to pack it away for another year.

Except I didn't.

I wasn't quite ready to give up. I like looking at it, especially at night when it is all lit up, casting a soft glow in the room.

The first clue that I had messed up was when I noticed the Department Store/Candy Shop had gone dark.

Initially I thought it might be a sign of the times and that, due to the slumping economy, the store had simply been forced to close it's doors.

I realize now, that the powers-that-be knew something I didn't ....

Another snow event was in the making and is in fact, barreling its way towards us. According to the local weather gurus snow-ice-to-sock Atlanta  we're in for quite a ride.

DRAT! Why didn't I pack away that stupid village earlier? Now we're off to the races, it's time to battle the lines at Kroger, stock the pantry with essentials like coke, wine, and chips, bread and milk, locate the batteries and candles, and batten down the hatches, or whatever else you're supposed to do when a storm is a comin'! Updates to follow as long as the power stays on. Keep your fingers crossed.