Christmas Day 2007

This was our first Christmas in Ohio. It was strange not to get together with Family on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, but we did get to say Hi on the phone and chatted on Skype too.
We had a white Christmas although I don't think it actually snowed that day. There was still quite a bit on the ground from the days prior though. It seems that it will snow a lot, then just as the last bit is melting away and it's almost gone, it will snow and everything will be all white again.
The temperature is getting colder too. I think it got down into the teens during the day and single digits at night (Brrrrrrrrrrrr!!!).

Our Christmas Tree with our gifts

Bazzin after opening his present and ready to play.

Ice scrapers/Bladed boxing Gloves... SWEET!!!

Farewell to Oz

With all the snow that we've been getting, that thought that had only been in the back of our minds about needing to get a different car became more pressing.

Last Tuesday night through Wednesday morning we got about 5 inches of the evil white stuff and when I opened the front door to leave, there was a layer of snow from our front door all the way across the street to the neighbor's front door.

No grass
No sidewalks
and more importantly... no ROADS!!!

I took a chance and started off down the road trying to follow the tire tracks in the snow from other cars that had driven down the street. I made the first turn about a block down the road and started up the slight incline of the road and then lost all traction and began sliding sideways. Luckily the brakes worked and kept me from sliding off into the ditch on the side of the road, but hitting the gas did nothing. As luck would have it, there was a street that I had passed so I slowly coasted backwards and was able to turn around and coast back home.

Seeing as though people told me later that day at work that we hadn't seen anything yet and the real snowfall would start in January we decided that the time had come to seriously start looking for something for me that would work in the snow. Yesterday we went to the Fred Martin car dealership in Barberton and after the typical battle back and forth with the salesguy over the price and terms, I had a new vehicle... a 2006 Ford Explorer 4X4.

I'm really happy to have something now that will have no problem driving in the snow, but a little sad at the same time to have to have gotten rid of the 350Z ("Oz"). I guess at least now I'll be able to get to work when it snows. :-)

Oz right before we left for Fred Martin (notice the pouring rain)

Our new 2006 Ford Explorer 4X4

It's a blizzard!

Wow!! We thought we had gotten snow before. Bhahahahahahahaaaa!!! That was nothing. This week we got some REAL snowfall. So much that there was no more color... just white everywhere. It made driving really interesting too. Thank God for the snowplow guy. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't be able to drive anywhere in all this silly snow.

Good Morning! See the road? Yeah, neither do we

Our walkway is in there somewhere

Our swing on the back deck. That layer on the top is just from overnight

Thanks for fixing the road, Mr. Snowplow guy!!

Oh! There's the walkway

Our first "Real" snow

Winter is finally here!

Well, it's been teasing us off and on for the past month or so, but last night winter finally hit us... hard. The snow began to fall off and on starting around 8:00 pm or so and along with it was some serious winds. by the time Juli and I went to bed, we weren't sure if we should go hang out in the basement or not in case it was a tornado. Luckily for us it wasn't and by the time the morning arrived, we had a nice thick layer of snow on everything.

Driving to work was interesting, but luckily the roads were just wet and didn't have any snow on them so they weren't slippery. I'm not sure if it's supposed to snow any more or not, but for now, it's sure pretty outside. :-)

View from our kitchen window of the front yard


Delores in the snow


View from our living Room of the backyard and balcony


The woods in our backyard