House Arrest / Prison Break

At long last, the snows dumped on us by one of the worst winter storms in Seattle's history -- and certainly in the ten years that I've lived here -- are receding from our driveway, lawn, and most importantly, neighborhood streets. Meh and Zachary had been pinned at home for nearly a week; I myself had gone to work one day (only to barely get the car back up the iced-over office driveway on the way out) and done a few grocery runs, mostly ending with the car abandoned at the base of our driveway. Meh attempted to go to work on Friday, but couldn't drive with the deep snow on our street. When she headed out on foot for the bus stop (itself four blocks away on an alternate snow route), there was no sidewalk to use (the snow having been plowed up onto it), and cars were having difficulty keeping control when she tried walking on the street, so back home she went.

Finally, the cabin fever got to be too much, so I put the chains on my car (for the first time ever -- and this counts my entire upbringing in Michigan) and we all went up the street to the grocery store together Friday afternoon. I think the drive was even more stressful for Meh than her cabin fever: at one point she just put her hands over her eyes, though I didn't think my driving was that bad. :)

The roads were still sloppy (and our own street and apparently much of Seattle mostly inaccessible) yesterday, so Meh had to cancel a date with a friend for proper tea at her favorite (favourite?) tea house. As a substitute, Meh had the brilliant idea to prepare afternoon tea for the family at home. There were homemade scones, sandwiches with the crusts cut off, sweets, and of course a lovely pot of freshly brewed tea. Zachary actually ate several bites of scone (I think the jam that I put on it helped a bit), though he preferred cheese and veggie booty to the sandwiches and sweets -- not that I'm complaining, more tea for Meh and myself!

It was wonderful to just have a relaxing afternoon all together, and really despite the week's stress of the ongoing bad weather and the occasional light flickers that had us thinking the power would be the next to go, it's been a nice opportunity to all just snuggle up at home. It's been Chanukah as well, so we've gotten to enjoy lighting the candles, sing the blessings, and watch Zachary tear open and play with the wrapping paper (often ignoring the actual presents). Tonight, the 8th and final night of the holiday, I finally caught a video of his response to candle lighting:



With the temperatures rising (inside of the house as well - we finally got our original circa 1970s attic insulation updated yesterday) and the snow finally starting to melt, today we were again ready to brave a different kind of inaccessible/inhospitable environment: the post-holiday shopping mall. Despite the chaos of finding a parking spot and the crazy jam-packed nature of the children's play area (which is even smaller than the one at our local mall), we had a nice lunch and stroll around the mall, and Zachary even took the rare stroller nap while mommy found a few cozy things on super-duper-extra-discount post-holiday sale.