Saturday, snow. Sunday, more snow overnight. We went cross-country skiing Saturday and encountered a kind of weird snowmobiler who, muffled all up in his helmet like Kenny, seemed to be offering to set track for us.

We skiied along the treeline for a while, and when we ran out of trees, ran right into the teeth of the blizzard. About 10 seconds into that, and we decided to turn around and head back. We got about 40 minutes’ worth of skiing out of it, so not bad, but not really great conditions. Maybe next time we’ll try one of the places with groomed trails – turns out there’s a perfectly good list of sites.

Also Saturday: two birthday parties to attend. One up in Vernon Hills at an ice rink for niece Naomi, and one down in St Charles at a private home for friend Katie. The blizzard was really, really coming down as we headed north – there was a surprising amount of traffic on the road, but all the idiots were staying home and it was just the people who drove snow-capable vehicles, or who knew how to drive in it. Both cameras got hauled along. We made it just as all the kids went out on the ice, and David started taking pictures. He got some really good ones, but I can’t find where he’s stashed them online.

We cut out of the one party early so we’d be able to get to the second one in time for the surprise. To our astonishment, the sun was (sort of ) shining and the clouds were gone, but the wind was blowing the fine snow around so much, it was occasionally causing white-out conditions wherever trees or a building didn’t block the wind.

For some reason, I took a lot of photos out of the window of the car, because it was just so beautiful, but also there was no way I was getting out.

We did make it for the surprise… and the house was still in full holiday decor mode, with a whole lot of winter snowmen. Festive and cozy, and great food, but a whole lot of craftsy snowmen. I mean, a LOT. In every room. Even more than Timmy has.

I actually own a couple of craftsy snowmen, and as I put them away tonight (finally) I thought briefly of separating them in different boxes. So they wouldn’t breed, you know. Because once you get winter holiday snowmen, you get more and more in a mysterious process, and the snowmen (and presumably snowwomen) only smile enigmatically when you ask them what they’ve been doing all year, cooped up in the Christmas box.

Anyway.

Sunday: Church, complete with snow and sled. I took a few pictures. There was a meeting afterwards that went on for a long time, and the annual meeting is in a week or so.

And that’s really all I’m going to say about that for now. Because it’s bedtime, and my eyes are itching from wearing my contacts for the first time in a long while. So good night.