Digging Out from Blizzard 2011

I must admit that when I woke up this morning and saw this:

my very first thought was really?  That's it?!  Somehow I thought it would be much, much more!  But the bottom line is that we did get a lot of snow overnight.  So much, in fact, that by early morning, this storm was severe enough to place it in the top three all-time snow storms in Chicagoland.  The truth is, it actually didn't look that bad from inside, but once we went outside and started digging out, it was clear that this was, in fact, a BIG snow storm.

Baird, bless his sweet heart, spent just over 7 of the last 18 hours snow blowing our entire block three times over.  He worked on the alley, Finn & Kat's car port space, and Ted & Sue's sidewalk on Fillmore too.

While Baird ran the snow blower and Kelsey worked on the stairs and walkway to the garage, Drew and I had a little fun on the way to Barrie Park.

The hill at Barrie Park was a popular place this morning!

Erin and her neighborhood friends were part of the group that enjoyed the fantastic sledding.

When they'd had their fill of sledding, the Neighborhood Three decided on a change of venue. They climbed onto our garage roof for some more snow day fun:

It was a pretty easy endeavor since there was a giant pile of snow that was formed when the dads on the block worked at clearing the alley.   The pile was even bigger than it was in the earlier pic when Drew and Emm were sledding on it.

Once they scaled the side of the garage, the girls set to work on a snowman.  They used the snow from the roof, carrots, chocolate chips, and food coloring to make a whimsical work of art:

Not to be outdone, Kelsey worked on her own snow(wo)man in the front of our house:

Here's the finished product:

I know for a lot of people this snow storm was a huge hassle, but for our family, it was a pretty great day.  We enjoyed each other's company.  We had fun playing in this historic snow.  There was not a single fight or cross word the whole day.

As my thoughts turned toward supper, I thought comfort food all the way.  I went with London broil, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and Caesar salad.  And of course, for dessert, there was snow ice cream.

We've just received word that both District 97and District 200 are closed again tomorrow, since side streets and alleys in a lot of places are still impassable, tho ours are in pretty good shape.  It's also turning bitterly cold, with wind chills sinking to 20 to 40 below zero tonight.

This is winter, Chicago style!