Here in Texas we dress for the winter season rather than actually enjoy the season for 3-5 months out of the year. We’re generally lucky if we see one snowfall (and a rather puny snowfall at that) a year. This winter is already turning out to be a relatively unusual winter as I saw my first snowfall in late November, maybe early December.
For as long as I’ve been transplanted in Texas I have spent most Christmas’s dreaming of White Christmas’s, this year was no different. On the Eve of Christmas Eve if was 67 degrees with a light breeze. I spent most of the day in a three quarter sleeved shirt. As the night drew on the air began getting crisp and the weather reports began promising snow. I remember my Mom and I chuckling to ourselves about the “winter blizzard” the weather man had promised. I laughed and joked about failing to bring my snow shoes home and how I’d probably regret it in the morning. Well, when I woke on Christmas Eve- I ate those words, the ground was covered with a thick layer of snow with more still falling. How beautiful it looked.
My mom and I, being true Northerners, were eager to put on our warm clothes, boots, and head out to run a few errands and take pictures of the scenery. Little did we know as we set out that morning that things would get as treacherous as they did. Where I was in Northern Texas ended up receiving 7.8 inches of snowfall on Christmas Eve- It’s what Texans call a blizzard. To their defense though, there were wind gust between 10 and 15 miles per hour and it was difficult to tell what was new snow and what was simply snow drift. I spent a good majority the afternoon Christmas Eve shoveling people’s cars out of ice and snow. I’d gotten all fancied up in the morning to run errands but to go shovel people out of the ice and snow I threw on any and every thermal, sweater, jacket, scarf, hat, and gloves I could find. My outfit was a sight to see- but I didn’t care, I was warm.
Many holiday travelers got stranded on local highways for over 24 hours. By late Christmas Eve and early Christmas Day the National Guard had been called in to do flyovers to assist in rescue efforts for people who had been stranded. Many people were forced to leave their cars on the sides of highways, in parking lots, and sometimes even in the middle of roads because the conditions were so bad. Roads in Oklahoma and in parts of Northern Texas remained closed through Christmas day and on into the following days. By Sunday it seemed that major highways had been plowed and were ready to open for travel, however, it was now an issue of moving cars that had been stranded.
As I made my departure back for my home I still saw cars stranded on the highway, snowmen that had been built while people were stuck for 24 plus hours waiting for conditions to clear enough, and snow and ice still making some driving lanes unusable.
What a crazy adventure this Christmas turned out to be. I sure got my White Christmas this year and spent it snowed in for about 2 days with family and friends. We watched movies, made Christmas candies (a tradition in my home), baked, and did our best to stay out of each other’s way. We made time to make memories and to laugh as often as we could.
