The snow we got last Wednesday in Calhoun county was, without question, the most I’ve ever seen here at one time, and the most beautiful.
It started falling last Wednesday morning just after 9:30 and fell until 8 p.m. that night turning everywhere you looked into a winter wonderland.
By 9 p.m. the limbs of our Red Leaf Maple on our patio looked like they were covered in cotton.
I can’t remember ever getting more than a couple of inches at a time through the years, but at our house, it measured right at six inches.
Lisa McNeece
We actually made snow cream more than once. How rare is that option!
I put a big, blue plastic bowl on top of the grill and it quickly filled up. Addi Claire and Ellie Kathryn couldn’t understand how I could possibly make ice cream out of snow.
The recipe I used was an old, but barely used one: 1 cup of milk, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, 1/2 cup sugar. Stir and then add snow to desired thickness.
Several told me they used Eagle Brand and vanilla, because they didn’t like the texture of the sugar. To each his own, I love the texture of the sugar.
Young and young at heart all over the county were enjoying playing in the snow– sledding, sliding, etc. When I was young, and it did snow enough for a bit of sledding, you walked up the hill with the sled, sledded down and walked back up.
We didn’t have four-wheelers, Gators, etc. pulling us around. (I sure wish we would have).
Late Wednesday afternoon, when everyone needed a supper break, we came in and started supper and washing clothes. A time or two, while we were eating the electricity flashed off.
I took that as my cue to dig out the candles and flashlights. I also made sure my phone was charged up.
We had just finished eating when the power went off at 7:30 p.m. I thought it might scare 3-year-old Ellie Kathryn, but she thought it was much fun carrying around a flashlight.
On a side note, I am extremely grateful to Kent Moore of Philadelphia (formerly of Bruce) who gave us small Weyerhaeuser LED flashlights at the Neshoba County Fair. They were perfect.
Ellie Kathryn grabbed one of these and went around with me lighting candles. A couple of people told me they were stuck without candles in their house. Not me. I keep a good stash for this very purpose.
I will admit when the power went out, I thought this might not be much fun, thinking back to the ice storm of 1994.
Marshall, Whitney and the girls went home and Joel and I finished cleaning up the kitchen by candlelight. Since it was Wednesday, paper day, we had been up since 3:30 a.m. so going to sleep with no power was no problem.
We were both asleep by 9 p.m., and at 10:30 p.m. when the power came back on, it was like Christmas. Lights were on all over the house, TVs came back on, the heating unit, etc. electricity.
Marshall said when they got home, Ellie Kathryn asked him several times to turn the TV on.
We were very lucky to have only a 3-hour outage. Many in the county were not so lucky, with several days of no power.
Our local power companies worked tirelessly to restore power.
Ellie Kathryn came back Thursday afternoon because she had enough of playing out in the snow.
Once she got cold, she was done and wanted to go back inside.
After I got her warmed back up, we went out in the backyard where she walked around in the snow eyeing how far it came up on her boots. She pointed to her tire swing and slide that were covered with snow. She watched Jack run in the snow, she fed him snowballs and then asked me why Jack had made the snow yellow “over there.”
We made a snow girl with a zebra print scarf that actually stayed up for four days. She had a carrot nose “like Olaf,” sticks for arms and Nandina leaves for her eyes.
That snow was a memory making one. They should all be like that.
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With all the snow and ice, spring seems far away, but Daylight Savings Time begins this Sunday, when we will move our clocks forward. (By the way, I do not like time changes and think they are ridiculous.) And spring break is next week.
You may email Lisa at lisamcneece@gmail.com and follow her on twitter @lisamcneece