Gaithersburg Christmas

We had planned to drive to Maryland on Saturday, December 19th, and have an early Christmas with Mother and Wendy's family. Friday was the boys' last day of school before winter break. But after sending them off to school, we checked the weather predictions and realized that a huge winter storm was heading up the coast and due to hit the DC area Friday evening. So we called Mother to see if we could come early, called the schools to arrange to check the boys out a bit early, tossed a ton of stuff in the van, including sleeping bags and enough food, and hit the road by 2pm.


It was 40 degrees and excellent driving conditions as we drove east on the turnpike, past the Cuyahoga River.




We rolled in just before 9pm and the snow started about 15 minutes later.




It started sticking immediately.




Are these tracks from the rock garden skunk?




It was still snowing (it snowed for 24 hours straight) but Glen got out Saturday morning and shoveled the drive anyway. Fortunately, he'd been able to fit the van in the garage.




The road heading out of the villa neighborhood.














Alan stayed out the longest.




Another round of shoveling.









The snow just kept getting deeper.














Alan dug out a cave.




The road around behind Mother's villa.




We had spaghetti for dinner. I'd brought enough food to be snowbound without worrying about getting to the grocery store.




Mother, all dressed for a Christmas celebration on Sunday. Unfortunately, Wendy's family was snowbound, too, so we couldn't get together with them as originally planned.




Mother entertained us with White Christmas. She has a copy from before she was married.




Mother's Christmas tree.




Santa Alan passes out the presents.




All 3 kids playing on DS's.




By Sunday afternoon, there was a large mound of snow where the plows had pushed it.




The roads were getting cleared.




Roger made a snow angel.









The snow covered the bench behind Mother's villa.














Mother cooked a pork tenderloin for dinner and I baked the potatoes I'd brought along.




Christmas dinner -- we got out the good china to make it feel even more festive.




Monday morning Glen decided to make a try at getting in to Wendy's place. Since we weren't sure how it would go, we didn't try to take Mother along. We just didn't want to risk being stuck somewhere with her so fragile health-wise. The roads turned out to be pretty passable, until we got to Cedar Creek Lane, the gateway to the Carballo home. The Federal government had closed all their offices, so Wendy's office, too, was closed.




Steve had had to go to work, and had managed to get out, so he suggested we park in his spot.




Wendy and Steve have a perfect sledding slope right outside their door.














Jenny and Vanessa.




Wendy dug all sorts of good stuff out of her freezer and pantry. We ate well. Then we did our gift exchange.




We had to head home Tuesday, but we'd gotten a bonus day by coming early. And we'd had a marvelous time playing in the snow and celebrating Christmas. There was some snow on the ground as we headed west on the PA turnpike.




The trees had a lovely coating of ice.



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