"Winter Storm Watch"

Many times as a child I wished for snow. Mostly I got rain in response to my pleas. A few times we would get a dusting. That dusting, no matter how light it was, always brought thrill to the children of the northwest. There is a song that is very dear to me that reminds of most Christmas' of my life. 'Christmas in the Northwest' sings of the evergreen conditions and rain that we are well accustomed to.
So what happens to people of the Puget Sound when we get a few inches of snow and ice? Well they call it a "STORM" of course.
The news is plastered with stories of sliding buses, closed school and barricaded roads. The weather forecasters say "what's coming next? More snow!" They make it sound like we are all going to die, and that everyone is suffering through something so life threatening and horrible that it won't end soon enough. Its very humorous to see chains on peoples cars. The biggest threat on the roads in ice, because everything has been compacted down and refrozen. Do chains help with that? I don't know. Whatever.
Honestly, my area has seen the most snow that I have heard. At my home we are over 15 inches. Granted we have seen some melting and re-freezing of snow. But we are still getting snow today. A few miles away, there is significantly less than at my house too. We are at the bottom of the hills so we get a good dusting of it.
Last night, we were warned of a strong storm coming in off the West coast, flying quickly east. They didn't know exactly what would happen in my area because we would get the tail end of the 'Storm'. But from what I have heard, the South Sound and some other areas of Washington, were hit very hard. Snow, freezing rain and forceful winds tortured and threatened the residents. They predicted some areas to get as much as 15 inches of snow in under 48 hours. Now for someone who is used to good winter storms, that doesn't sound like much, but for our area it significant. Winds, I heard reached 70 mph in some places.
In preparation for the storm, we bought wood, briquettes, and pellets. My father came and got the flue for the wood stove hooked up. Granted its in the garage and you gotta get the stove really hot before it does us any good, but we had a back up source of heat. The briquettes we would use on the grill to cook. This was all if we lost power and enough for a couple days.
We had considered going up to Chad's parents' home to weather it out, but decided with the pets, we should stick it out at home. Having family as back up shelters was a blessing of security to staying home.
Funny thing happened though. We got a couple inches of snow. Absolutely no wind. And kept the power on the entire time. But Chad's parents lost power. Don't know if they had winds or how much snow. But they lost power. So I am glad I stayed home.

The weather is forecasted to stay pretty much around mild 30's and snow and rain mix. So will we have a white Christmas? It may end up being a bit more slush if it warms up too much, but we have enough that will make it stick around for a while. Unless it warms up dramatically....