Winter Break -- Snow place Like Home

It all started after a weekend at Grammy and Papa Dunn’s house in Vancouver. We did an early Christmas with them, and awoke Sunday morning (Dec. 14) to a little bit of snow starting to stick. We crossed the river back towards Portland and discovered a vastly different picture: Snow everywhere.

Youth group was canceled that night – Marcus was bummed; he was supposed to do worship – and getting home up the mountain to Sandy seemed dubious. So we crashed at Grandma Nomi and Grandpa Steve’s place in Gresham.

As the snow fell, there was a lot of Christmas fun to be had. Sugar cookies were made, winter walks were taken and the Johnny Mathis Christmas CD crooned in the background.

Marcus went to work Monday – dropped off by Grandma Nomi – and afterward we decided to brave the snow and try to make it back to Sandy. With more snow in the forecast, we figured it would be better to be in our own beds.

The free bus was operating, so Marcus was able to get to work Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, while Savannah and London stayed indoors at home. Little did they know that staying indoors would be the norm for the next week.

The snow nearly melted by Wednesday, but made a comeback on Thursday. Marcus made a snowman in the front yard at East Hill on his lunch break. Overnight Thursday to Friday, several inches dumped here, making travel conditions bad. Marcus stayed home from work, but did a little work from the comfort of the La-Z-Boy.

We decided that Friday was the only day we would be able to try to get out to do some Christmas shopping, and so we went to Guitar Center in Clackamas – albeit slowly – to allow Savannah to pick up a present for Marcus there. We quickly made our way back to Sandy as more snow started to dump.

Saturday involved a family trek to Joe’s Donuts and Mountain Moka for coffee and doughnuts. London rode in the sling as Mom and Dad trudged up and down Meinig Hill from the apartment to downtown Sandy. There was also a trip to the library, where London played with books and toys and the parents got to connect to the outside world with the Internet.

Later that night, we decided to brave the elements by taking our Chevy HHR out of the carport at the apartment and get some dinner and a movie. Making it out of the driveway was no problem. Going to Safeway to get a movie from a RedBox-type receptacle wasn’t a big deal, either. Finding a restaurant open in this storm was a bit more difficult, but we all enjoyed some delicious Chinese food at Wong’s King in Sandy. Fortunately the girls who waited on us lived nearby. The difficult part was getting back in our unshoveled driveway. We weren’t able to get back under our covered carport, but instead had to slide into an uncovered spot. As you might guess, that left the HHR vulnerable to what came next.

Still more snow dumped Sunday. Church services were (wisely) canceled – not that we were going anyway. Marcus fought cabin fever by taking a few treks into the snow, one time coming back with a pizza from Sparky’s in downtown Sandy. We enjoyed eating our Chinese leftovers, sipping hot chocolate and munching on the frosted sugar cookies Marcus made.

Throughout the week, Marcus and Savannah enjoyed some time together to play in the snow after London went to bed for the night. They enjoyed throwing snowballs, photo sessions, snow shoveling, building a snow fort and just watching the flakes fall beneath the pink sky. It was thick with Christmas spirit.

East Hill closed campus to visitors and, more importantly, employees Monday and Tuesday, so Marcus didn’t have to worry about traversing the snow-on-top-of-ice-on-top-of-snow to get to Gresham (or take a vacation day or unpaid day off)! The free bus was out of commission, too. The weather caused the family to miss a performance of “The Nutcracker” in downtown Portland with Grandma Nomie, Shannon and Grandpa Steve Monday night.

But we all got a show of our own, as we took a stroll (with the jogging stroller) through the snow-covered streets of Sandy. We enjoyed looking at the various Christmas lights displays around our neighborhood, which looked so much prettier with the snow. Houses looked like frosted gingerbread houses with the colored lights on them. Lawn candy canes barely stuck up out of the two-foot-thick snow. It was gorgeous.

This really has felt like a winter break for us. It’s times like these where we wish the snow would never end, but that we could be a bit more mobile. We miss our friends in the Gresham area, but at the same time are grateful for the quality time we’ve had together. We just wish Liberty could have experienced it out of the womb! (No, that doesn’t mean we wished Savannah would go into labor here at our isolated apartment!)

To check out all of our pictures from the blast, click here!