Oh the weather outside is frightful... but the MALL is sure delightful!

That's right, after a record-breaking TWO FEET of snow fell on us yesterday, everyone was hunkered down at home (following a frantic mass toilet-paper-run at stores the night before, one of many Maryland phenomenons I shall never be able to explain), and the whole city looked deserted. This was all too tempting a sight for Travis and I, who have NEVER BEFORE seen empty streets on the Saturday before Christmas under any circumstances, and he had already made a test run to school that morning so we knew Maverick (our Pilot... get it?) could handle it! Um I just remembered we forgot to mention the new car. We just bought a Honda Pilot and we are in love with it in every way, not the least of which is the fact that we were NOT stuck in the snow yesterday! We loaded up the kids and drove straight to the mall, figuring this was our rare opportunity to do some shopping (AT THE MALL!) right before Christmas and not have to fight crowds! Maybe the girls could even see Santa, since they haven't at all this year so far! Here are a few snow pictures to set the scene:

Driving: Road? What road? Who needs roads?

Those things poking out of the snow are windshield wipers. When we first moved here we thought it was hilarious that everyone stuck their windshield wipers up when it was going to snow. Then we were like, "...Oh..."

So anyway, we got to the mall, and sure enough it was practically empty! Not only that, but half the stores were closed. The employees who were there were like, "...what are you doing here?"

Okay but here's the punchline. Guess who was NOT at the mall? That's right - SANTA! SANTA WAS SNOWED IN! We couldn't believe it. Whoever heard of such a ridiculous thing? Luckily the girls weren't too disappointed. Somehow they seemed to understand.

Anyway we had such a fun adventure out there all by ourselves in the snow! Plus, church was canceled today! Oh I mean, um, unfortunately, church was canceled today. Sad. (I swear I'm not anti-church. It's just always nice to have a snow day to relax. Right?) We've been sitting at home drinking our hot chocolate, watching Christmas movies, and I did a Christmas puzzle all by myself.

Awesome.