Dear Lucy and Rosie,
With this week’s first real Chicago snow of 2012, I cant help thinking back to last year’s Groundhog Day Blizzard. Here are some of our memories (and favorite photos) from that historic storm that I hope you girls will remember happily.
p{color:gray}. Click any photo to enlarge.
The snow started on Tuesday, February 1, 2011. Papa went out that morning for a doctor’s appointment, and when he came back, he warned us against driving anywhere. I had been considering a trip to Trader Joe’s, but I heeded his advice, and I was glad I did. (We were pretty well-stocked on food from our “Wonka party”:/news/2011/wonka-fest/ the weekend before, anyway.) I did my “exercises”:/news/2010/the-sixty-five-day-shred/ while you girls watched “_Beauty and the Beast_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B003DZX3SA/octothorppres-20, and then we read a bunch of library books, including one called “_When Mindy Saved Hannukah_”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0439769906/octothorppres-20. By that afternoon, “preschool”:http://nppreschool.com/ had been canceled and the winds were blowing vigorously.
Looking out the window, I finally understood why “Pa Ingalls almost got lost in that blizzard”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060581832/octothorppres-20 — between the violent wind and the giant drifts of snow, we could hardly see across the street. _Our_ Papa came home from work at about 5:00, and we were all glad to have him snug and warm inside. We ate “chicken soup with dumplings”:http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/all-afternoon-or-less-than-an-hour-chicken-soup-with-herb-dumplings-a-recipe-in-two-versions-134059 and some “homemade bread”:http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/quick/recipe-notime-bread-040653. After you girls went to bed, Papa and I watched “_Bride and Prejudice_”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361411/ — an unusual choice for a blizzard, but just right for taking the chilly edge off the night. We talked about how you girls would love the fabulous sparkly clothes, fun music, and dancing — maybe I’d show it to you sometime.
On Wednesday, February 2, just about everything was closed. The streets were full of snow, cars were buried four-feet deep, and the wind continued to blow. We heard stories of people being stuck in their cars for twelve hours on Lake Shore Drive, then finally abandoning their cars there and walking home.
That day, we all stayed home — “North Park University”:http://www.northpark.edu/ had canceled classes, so even Papa couldn’t go to work. But he did have fun putting some snappy messages up on the university’s marquee sign at Foster & Kedzie (see photo). We had waffles for breakfast as a special treat.
By mid-morning, the snow had stopped falling. We went out to shovel (and play), and it was amazing — the snow had blown into drifts taller that you girls!
You girls had fun playing on the snow mountains for a little while. Lucy especially loved jumping off the top of the jungle gym into the huge drifts.
But then you got chilly (it was pretty cold out), and we girls came inside. Papa shoveled some more (but didn’t have very much to do, thanks to Jack next door and his snowblower).
Papa walked over to campus to get some pictures — he was even able to stand right in the middle of Foster and take shots showing how totally empty it was. (See photo.)
I made a batch of “chocolate cupcakes”:/news/2008/favorite-chocolate-cupcakes/, some “more chicken soup”:http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/all-afternoon-or-less-than-an-hour-chicken-soup-with-herb-dumplings-a-recipe-in-two-versions-134059, and we listened to “Stevie Wonder”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004SZWD/octothorppres-20. That afternoon, we had some quiet time, then I talked on the phone with Debby (she’s having a baby!), and you girls worked on some watercolors. It’s funny — in my journal, I have a few notes about how I felt cranky a couple of times and I was impatient with you, but even just a few days later, I only remember nice, peaceful, snowy moments. I hope this is how you remember it too!
By the next day, North Park University was open again (although preschool was still canceled), and we stayed in some more. Here are a few more things we did:
* “Krista”:/news/2011/how-to-interview-a-babysitter/ came over to play with you one morning
* playing dress up
* drawing pictures
* baking “compost cookies”:http://www.amateurgourmet.com/2010/02/momofuku_milk_bars_compost_cookie_recipe.html
* reading books together
* making “granola”:http://boydsnest.org/news/2012/the-best-granola/
* watching “_Bride and Prejudice_”:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361411/ (we were right — you girls did love it!)
That afternoon you had your first swimming lesson — we had to hike there through the snow, but then it felt really good to jump in the water! I swam some laps during your lesson, and the Peer Family sent us home with a special package of four walrus cupcakes. Ms. Kaitlyn babysat for you that night when Papa and I went out for a date (with the derek and Linda, to “Rootstock”:http://rootstockbar.com/). We were so thankful for Jack, who had cleared all the snow in the alley out of the way with his snowblower. It was our first trip out with the car in four days!
Over the weekend, most of the snow was cleared away, although it was still pretty tough to park cars on the street. You girls had a blast sliding around on our little sleds in the front and back yards.
I learned that if I put “babylegs”:http://www.babylegs.com/ on your arms (under your coat, but over the tops of your mittens) it kept that snow out from your wrists and you were much happier. The snow was mostly cleared away on the sidewalks, but some passages were still pretty narrow.
The next week, preschool was open again, but we couldn’t get the double stroller out — even if we could have gotten it through the gangway (which was completely blocked with snow), many of the sidewalks weren’t shoveled enough to allow passage for that wide double stroller. I had the awesome idea of dragging you girls to preschool on a sled, and that worked great — there was usually just enough snow on the grow to make it pretty easy to pull the sled (although it was definitely harder with two girls in it than with just one).
It certainly was quite a snow. We were really thankful for our cozy little house that week!
h3. And then came the thaw…
We had warm spell about ten days after the blizzard. It began pretty seasonably, with temperatures in the mid-thirties, just enough to start turning all of those big snowpiles into rivers of water. We finally got the double stroller up and running again, although it was tricky to navigate it through some narrow passages of snow — you girls almost fell out at one point!. On Valentine’s Day of 2011, it was quite warm — up in the forties — and the snow really began to melt. (That night, we had a special dinner of shrimp scampi and chocolate cake, but that doesn’t really have anything to do with snow.) We started wearing rainboots (instead of snowboots) the next day.
In the middle of the week, the temperatures got almost up to sixty degrees — it felt great, but it resulted in some serious puddles! One day, on the way to visit our friends Aaliyah and Judah for a playdate, Lucy fell right into a giant puddle — we had to borrow some extra clothes from Aaliyah that day. After that, we took to wearing snow pants, which felt silly in the warm weather, but we needed a way to protect against the wet and mud. (I did order a couple pairs of real “rain pants”:http://www.llbean.com/llb/shop/45259?feat=507295-GN3 for you girls shortly after that.)
One afternoon, while we were walking home from preschool, Lucy decided to step into a big mud patch — and her boots really got stuck! I was glad we were able to pull her out. When we got home, you girls had a delightful romp in the mud and ice and water in the backyard. It was pretty messy, but I could tell you were having a blast. I stayed inside and listened to my “audiobook”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/014314524X/octothorppres-20 while chopping some vegetables for stir-fry that night. When you finally came inside, you had baths right away! (We have a video of this backyard mud fun on February 17, 2011, so maybe we should watch it together sometime.)
After that week, almost all the snow had melted, and it began to turn cold again. We even expected some more snow the next week. But that little hint of spring weather was just enough to whet our appetite for spring! One day Lucy remarked, “We never got to go ice skating this year!” She turned out to be right about that. Let’s try for ice-skating in 2012!
Love,
Mama