Bizarre Blizzard

My hectic days leave me with no time to watch the news, so I get most of my information from Facebook or Twitter. On Sunday, I caught a glimpse of someone’s Facebook status referencing the impending winter storm, and really thought nothing of it.  That day, I got back into the city with the kids on a later side. I knew that I still had plenty of errands to run, including food shopping for the week, but I didn’t want to drag the kids to the market on a Sunday night, before the start of the school week.

After the kids went down and I finished some work, I decided to click on the news to see what is really going on with this storm. I was shocked to see that we were being warned to brace for a winter white wash like no other in our lifetime. It sounded big, but I wasn’t too concerned, even with Jason still away for work. I immediately thought of the Storm of 2006, when I actually needed to work and entertain my designers who were in town. If I survived that and Hurricane Sandy, then this would be a cake walk. But after reading friends status later that evening about Whole Foods being completely sold out of food, and all their deliveries postponed, I started to panic, because I needed to stock up.

I went to bed with such anxiety, and barely slept a wink. First thing in the morning, I turned on the news which only heightened my angst. Eventually, I pulled myself together, and at 7am, I decided to bundle up the kids, and head out to our local grocery store. I’m normally not a huge fan of this store, and only shop there as a last resort. That morning, the store was surprisingly quiet, even though shelves had already been completely ravaged. Again, I started to stress, and began tossing random foods, most which we normally never eat, into our cart. The kids were literally running down the aisles, which didn’t help at all. I took a deep breath, and started telling myself we are only going to be indoors for two days, max. Ok, calm again.

We all rushed back home, got dressed, walked Ryder to school, before Siella’s drop off. Afterwards, I stopped into another bodega, just in case I forgot something at the market. We were all set, and now, only thing to do was watch the snowfall, while making a huge pot of lentil soup.  School dismissal came around quicker than expected, and the kids were psyched to see the snow piling up on the pavement. Knowing that they had a snow day away from school the next day only added to the excitment. We stayed outside for a bit to play, and I started amping them up about the massive amount of snow on the horizon. They were super giddy, and ready to build a monster snow man with all that snow!

That night I let them stay up passed their bed times, as I watched the news to get a better grasp on the storm’s intensity.  A few channels started to downgrade the storm which left me questioning if it was really going to happen, and by the time I had gone to bed, the snow completely stopped. The kids woke up super early, in anticipation of all the snow that we discussed. We looked out our window, and were surprised to see lots of street pavement, and not as much white stuff as promised. At first, I was so pissed at myself for getting so anxious and losing sleep over storm prep, but I looked on the bright side, and enjoyed the snow day, as light as it was.

The kids and I played in the snow all day until their little fingers and toes were ready to fall off. Ryder could have stayed outside longer, but the girls get cold faster, so we went outside three different times. In between, we watched a movie, set up forts, baked cupcakes, and made some arts and crafts. Needless to say, I am pretty exhausted and my house is totally upside down, but this evening at dinner, Ryder said it was the best day ever! They are now asking for another snow day, and they can’t believe they only had one day off!  Hope you all enjoyed your snow day! xx