North Texas Received Record-Breaking Snow After All.

I just want to start off by saying, what a great stinking way to wake up on my birthday!  Snow, and lots of it!  I can already tell you that today will be amazing.  No school, going to work later, and still enough fresh snow for more snow ice cream.  Amazing.

Yesterday (that being February 11th, 2010) broke the previous record of snowiest calendar day of all time by more than 4 inches!!!  We had 11.2 inches fall yesterday beating the previous record of 7.8 inches.  DANG!  We also broke the record for most snow in a 24-hour period with 12.4 inches (.3 more than the '78 record).  I won't lie, it's pretty sweet.  If we get 2 more inches this month, we will have the snowiest winter on record for this area as well as the snowiest February of all time.  As much as I complain about not getting enough snow in North Texas, Mother Nature goes and punches me in the face.  I love it.  Not actual physical pain, but the Mother Nature being awesome part.

I also have to add that yesterday was such a great day.  I felt like such a little kid all day.  Thankfully my little cousin Wesley was around so that I didn't feel like such a loser!  We made a pretty great snowman, had snow ice cream, made snow angels, and had a snowball fight.  It's not that I haven't done these things before in my life, it's that I've never done them in Texas.  The last time I remember it snowing enough to make a snowman I was 3 and it wasn't even but an inch, maybe two.

Our snowman was pretty great.  We made his nose from a half-eaten pickle and his eyes and mouth out of marbles!  Notice our great attention to detail with the scarf, hat, and carefully selected stick arms.  Also notice the bowls in the background collecting snow for our snow ice cream!

That would be Wesley making a snow angel while making only the most hilarious faces because of the snow falling on his face.  Ahhhh.  Great.  He's never seen this much Texas snow in his life.  In fact, I guess no one has.  He also had never made snow angels, a snow man, or ice cream.  I'm definitely glad I got to make his February 2010 Snowstorm memorable!

Wesley decided that since I dusted off the satellite the first time, that he would try the second time.  Notice his general lack of height.  Haha.

This is the beginning of our snow ice cream.  Condensed milk, some fake vanilla extract (the real stuff is expensive and I didn't have vanilla beans on hand to make any, so there!), some almond (also fake I'm sure), and tons of sugar.  I don't think there are many better things on the earth.  There are not pictures of the finished product, because we ate it all.  Very quickly. You'll just have to know that it tasted awesome.












And I leave my blog with this, Jack the snowman, hungover -- possibly a sign of things to come?  And also, SUCKS TO YOUR ASS-MAR VANCOUVER!!!  Okay, so I do find it ever so funny that North Texas has been getting more snow (at the moment) than historically snowy places ... ... ... like Alaska and B.C. [read: Vancouver]!!!  I couldn't help but say it!

North Texas Is Getting (Almost) Record Snow!

I am pretty much super sporadic with this whole blogging thing, but I don't even care.  Today is awesome.  It's snowing so hard (for North Texas).  So hard (for North Texas), in fact, that I don't have to go to work and I won't be going to school!  The last part being by choice of course.  According to the Dallas Morning News,

"Snow continues to fall and will only grow heavier across North Texas today, contributing to what is expected to be the snowiest winter in 25 years."

The rest of the article is HERE.

I am so excited.  Not only is there snow, there's a lot of it and it's gorgeous.  It's even snowing hard enough to knock the satellite out giving me yet more reason to be outside!  I'll be making snow ice cream if it snows enough (which it should).  I have NEVER made snow ice cream in Texas.  I always have to wait till we go to the ranch in Red River, NM during the winter break for that.  This makes me very happy.  The last time it snowed this much in North Texas was when I was 3 (1990).  That was such a magical time in my childhood.

It's made even more awesome because I'm still young enough to act like a little kid and get away with it!!!  I will be using that excuse all day.  Off to the park for me!!!  I wonder if there's water in the waterfall(s) today?  That would be even more magical.  As per Dango, I'll be trying my hand at cross-country skiing with regular skis at Coleman Lake Park.  Off to the white outdoors for me!

Notice how cute the gazebo and trees in the yard look.  Also notice the snow on the cactus to the right!  I wish I had a dedicated photographer to take cute pictures of me in said gazebo or frolicking, hahaha.  Today will be such a great day (since we're expecting something like 6 inches of snow!), even sans sunshine.

I hope it's apparent how excited I am.

I'm such a kid!  ^_^

Some snow! and MOAR COOKIEZ!

Alright.  A quickie Christmas Day blog seems about right today.  I awoke to find that there was still some snow left in the shadows of random places!

This was in the hammock behind my grama's house!  SNOW!

From Christmas 2009

I also found some on this here fence (like what I did with the hick accent?) near the neighbor's house!

From Christmas 2009

Anyways, the snow was nice and all, but what I appreciated more than that was the cold weather.  I basically never get to wear a scarf for a reason other than looking nice.  I actually needed it.  It's just a shame that it wasn't cold enough for more than a light jacket and a scarf!

Basically all of today involved making even MORE cookies.  Sheesh.  The ones we made today are called biscochitos.  They are delicious.  Holy crap.  We only make them about once a year (sometimes twice if we're lucky!!!).  The only reason we don't make them more often is because making the dough for them is kind of like pulling off your nails one at a time with a pair of tweezers.  It sucks.  The cramped hands and arms are so worth it though.  The combo of anise, cinnamon, and whiskey just does it for me.  I know.  Sounds like a pile of ass ... but it's not.  They're pretty dense, almost hard tack biscuit-like (hence the name) but sweet-ish.  Mmmm.  I pretty much ate half of the first batch by myself.

One of the many boxes of cookies going to someone's house (who knows).  Isn't my mom adorable?

From Christmas 2009

Pressing out one of the small balls of dough:

From Christmas 2009

Cutting out the cookies with a cookie-cutter:

From Christmas 2009

Final product (well, about 1/10th of them):

From Christmas 2009

Yum.

Now off to enjoy my not Christmas dinner.  Our actual dinner and such isn't until tomorrow even though I got my presents today!  Yaaay!

Merry Christmas!

I Think It's About Time for Some Snow, No?

K, this is from January.  And it's October now.  I want this again.  I LOVE snow.  This is one of the only times it has ever snowed here.  Not sleet (we get tons of that), not freezing rain (all of TX closes down when this happens, haha), not hail, SNOW.  It was amazing.  I felt like I was a kid again, as I have a huge affinity for winter/snow/cold.  It snows about 3 days a year in my hometown (which is in rural NE Texas).  But this snow was the only times in the history of ever that it has snowed in Bryan/College Station, Galveston, and even Port A!  I like wearing my winter clothes, walking through snow, having hot chocolate, ice skating, etc.  I was NOT made to live in Texas.  I love it here, but a REAL winter is one thing I am lacking here.  The reason I say all this is because it has finally been getting "cold."  By "cold," I mean below 55 degrees.  Woo Hoo!!!  So, now, I'm pretty much praying for it to get so cold that I'll actually wear a jacket, and maybe it will snow again!?  I do see snow every year, we go skiing every Christmas in Red River, and I spend Thanksgiving in Colorado.  The big deal is that it snowed HERE.  Hahaha.  So, Canada/Upper Midwest/Alaska, send me some of your snow!!!  :)  I want to wear my parka!!!!