So, I had everything planned out perfectly:
Fri. Dec. 20: my last day of work before the Christmas holidays (and a two-week vacation!)
Sat. Dec. 21 & Sun. Dec. 22: Paul and I finish our Christmas shopping
Mon. Dec. 23: bake cookies for my entry in the kitchen frolic Cookie Advent Calendar
Tues. Dec. 24: spend Christmas Eve at home with my family
Wed. Dec. 25: spend Christmas Day with Paul's family
What actually happened? Our house lost power around 12:30 am Sunday (Dec. 22) morning and didn't get any power (or heat) back until early Dec. 24, nearly 56 hours later. Needless to say, almost all the food in the fridge/freezer was lost, although we did manage to give some away to those family who still had power and we spent most of our nights staying with generous and hospitable family members. It's actually kind of scary to be sitting in a dark house, on a dark street, without power or heat and absolutely no way of communicating to the outside world (no phone lines or cell phone service!). It was eerie to say the least.
I also had to give Paul his Christmas gift early because it was being stored in the fridge! It was a monthly subscription to the Carnivore Club (more on that in a future blog post!)
Paul and I barely finished our Christmas shopping (we managed to do so by Christmas Eve) and I didn't get to do any Christmas baking at all. So, the Cookie Advent Calendar is missing Day 24, but I'm hoping to fix that sometime before I go back to work on January 6.
The ice storm and freezing weather that caused the huge power loss across southern Ontario (and parts of the northeastern US) created some beautiful photos, but seriously, you can only look at so many pictures of frozen trees before you think about the damage and inconvenience it caused, including some tragic deaths.
I'm very grateful to my family for being so generous, opening their houses to us and forgiving our hastily wrapped gifts (and my lack of baked goods this year). It's times like these that remind everyone what is really important about the holiday season - family and friends.
I didn't get much of a chance to take a lot of photos (trying to figure out how to save Christmas and stay warm is a really annoying distraction!), but here's just some of the beauty, aka destruction, in my neighbourhood.
No matter how you spent this past holiday season, I hope that it was filled with family, friends and an abundance of warmth and food!
Paul and I are heading out of town to spend New Year's Day at the Winter Classic (it's like I can't get enough of being cold or something!) so I also want to take this opportunity to with everyone a very safe and memorable New Year's Eve and Day! Here's to 2014! I can't wait to share it with all of you!
Such a shame this happened to you =( his sounds worse that what was happening in the south of England but I don't really have the right to say seeing as I'm a northerner. Fingers crossed there is no more to come. Such beautiful destruction photos though!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful photos! I'm glad you were able to make the best of the holidays without heat & power! It's a blessing to be able to count on family and friends at times like this. I find sometimes we get so caught up in the hustle & bustle of Christmas that it's easy to forget what's really important. I guess this is Mother Nature's way of reminding us what the holidays are really about.
ReplyDelete