Christmas Weekend Snowstorm

Christmas not only delivered goodies and time with family, it also brought about 20 inches of snow to Sioux Falls.

I worked Monday through Thursday leading up to the storm and was on the assignment desk. The brunt of the storm really hit Christmas Day.

You know it's really bad when churches cancel Christmas Eve Night and Christmas Day masses! The wind really blew things around, creating drifts 5-10 feet high in places. The roads didn't stay open in many open areas too as the winds drifted them shut again. The state closed the Interstates and warned people not to travel. For many, Christmas was going to have to wait.

The city didn't really start cleaning things up until Saturday so we spent the day indoors. Noah stayed cuddly in his jammies. (He doesn't like the red focus beam on my camera so his eyes get real big like this when I take pictures of him)
But since the winds died down, we bundled Alexis up in her snow suit and boots and threw her out on the deck. I had to clear away some of the snow because when I set her in it, she was so light, she didn't go all the way through it to the ground... but she couldn't move in what she did sink into.
The snow was pretty dry so it wasn't sticky enough for us to make a snowman. Snow balls were pretty much out of the question too. Still, Dad & Noah watched us play from inside through the sliding glass door for the whopping 10 minutes we spent outside. I think it took longer to get her dressed and undressed than we spent in the snow.

This is a look at the parking lot of our complex. We are really sheltered back here from the wind and you can see the snow that still accumulated. The cars there in the front row had to be shoveled out... but many of them didn't even try to do that for days.