World Travelers

We had a snow day at the Merrill house. After roasting hot dogs and smores over the fire-place, the kids spent the rest of the evening carrying Sockeye (our kitty) around in his kennel (a cardboard box with holes that Adam cut out for windows). They returned home a few times for forgotten items for their travels and then returned to Africa (Ryan's room), Antarctica (living room) and, it took a moment for them to decide, the tropical jungle- Mexico.  I love when they go on trips (see camping, last year in Sitka).

As for the snow day, DC had a big storm starting last night until this evening.  It didn't blow much, just snowed and snowed.  We probably got about 18 inches, maybe more.  The whole world has shut down.  We canceled the ward Christmas party that we had just finished decorating yesterday (150 people, tables, chairs, centerpieces, everything down to the silverware- I'm the Activites Chairman) and turned down the opportunity to reschedule for the day after Christmas.  I really wanted people to see how pretty it looked, but not that bad. 

Yesterday, we stopped at Home Depot and all there was a big sign "NO MORE SHOVELS" and a whole line of people carrying nothing but bags of salt.  I laughed out loud right in the store and a man turned and said "Are you laughing at me?"  I told him no, but that we had just moved from Alaska and a storm coming with twelve inches of snow didn't seem to be that big a deal.  He retorted, "It's going to be eighteen inches."  I smiled and tried not to laugh out loud again, like eighteen inches was going to stop everything.  Standing in line, I started to think maybe I forgot what snow was like, maybe we wouldn't be able to get anywhere.  The checker said, "I grew up in Illinois and no, this isn't any big deal.  They just don't know what to do with it here."  So I walked to the car, told it all to Adam and he laughed out loud too.