Christmas 2022

First of all, I'm just so glad that we didn't have to drive anywhere for Christmas.  Dohnele and I had loads of work to deal with right up until the Holiday which would have meant we'd be driving during what became a ridiculous two-day coating of ice.  To be fair, the freezing rain had been predicted for over a week in advance.  It had been really cold and never quite warmed up during the day, but was dry.  Then a rainy front moved in.  Rain was falling on a frozen landscape and the the rain literally "popped" into little hail balls as soon as it hit a surface.  Dohnele said it sounded like Rice Krispies outside.

Picture from work.  The former community of Lewisville under some very drizzly, gray skies.

Anyway, I had been telling Dohnele all day to get home as early as possible to avoid the freezing rain, but she missed it and stayed at work till sunset.  On her drive home she had to pull over repeatedly because her defrost couldn't melt the freezing rain which was accumulating on her windshield!  Fortunately, I was teleworking from home and did all the grocery shopping for a full week, that morning.

Night of the 23rd (above) and the 24th (below); everything covered in ice!  Also, Ben's truck on my lawn.

Eventually the white hail was overcome by the freezing rain, but the hail kept the white opaque color.  So it looked like a quarter-inch of snow fell, but it was a quarter inch of ice!  So slippery that you couldn't even stand up on it.  That evening I watched as one highway after another closed indefinitely due to ice and crashes.  And the next day didn't get above freezing in town, but that was the day Ben was supposed to drive to Salem from Spokane and he couldn't be deterred!

Because I-84 was closed through The Gorge, he had to take US-97 south to OR-22 which took him over Santiam Summit which was actually rainy because the rain up there hadn't frozen yet (so weird!)  He got to Salem having taken an extra 3hrs to get here.  And when he got here, he couldn't park because he kept sliding and he ended up on my lawn.

Dohn and Teresa showed up on Christmas Eve as the ice was finally beginning to melt.  I spent the day just slowly cooking in prep for the 25th.  Josh and Hannah showed up that evening once things had finally melted and we had dinner and opened presents.  And then on the 25th itself, Dohnele and I just cooked most of the day while folks relaxed.  That evening, with precisely five minutes to spare, we finished the absolute most perfect dinner.  Everything went off without a hitch and was enjoyed by all.