SNOW DAY in CHICAGO!

I love Chicago. I moved here in the middle of high school and fell in love with the city, the culture, the pace, the architecture, the food, and the WEATHER! YES! I LOVE cold weather, and I especially love snow. In high school my dad had a huge snow blower that was the width of the sidewalk and had a gear shift with five speeds! Not only would I happily plow the driveway, but the neighbors and their neighbors and the side walk all the way around the culdesac. (we were at the end where the snow was dumped with the city plow turned around and blocked our driveway with a mountain of snow... which is why we got the huge snowblower)

but I digress. I've been very disappointed for several years. It's hardly snowed. We've had these lame boring snowless winters for several years now. So when this past December was the 'coldest Chicago December in recorded history' I was so excited. My snow blower has been dying for years, but it wasn't a big deal. I've shoveled and borrowed by sister's wimpy electric one to get by since they live four houses down. Anyway - the wonderful weather people predicted a 'Snow EVENT' in December, so I hurried out to finally buy a new snowblower! A snow 'event' - wow, what a term! I was all excited. Was there an 'event?' NO! There wasn't even a flake. I sat there depressed with my snowblower and nothing to blow. And it's been that way ever since. My California relatives came to see snow and got a warm Christmas.

BUT FINALLY, A REAL SNOW FALL LAST NIGHT!

CHECK THIS OUT!

Here is one of the our small group families that nearly got stranded at our house, we could hardly get the cars out of the drive way after our meeting!

WOOOO-WHO!!!!!
Man the Plow!

I FINALLY got to fire up the snow blower!!! I even did my neighbor's entire drive and cleaned off their cars, partly to give them a tangible expression of God's love, and partly because it was MORE SNOW to BLOW!

The Next Morning...

Here is my wife's car. (Can you find the Mickey ears?) I cleaned off her car last night, but a thin layer still fell later. But I left her roof alone so I could get an accurate measurement of the depth of the this most wonderful snow:

10 INCHES!

And not only is it a lot of snow, it is the BEST KIND of snow! Heavy, thick, and PACKABLE! I am soooo bummed that I leave for Orlando tomorrow! I wish I could be here to plan a huge snowball fight! I hope the snow sticks around for my Arctic Blast 4-6th Grade retreat in a month! Last year, I challenged the ENTIRE camp to a snowball fight - ME vs. the CAMPERS! Yes, me against 150 or so snowball throwing kids! It was a blast. How? I was on the outdoor ampitheator stage, they had to stay in the stands. They threw at me, and I threw at them. It was chaos and mayhem for over 45 minutes. I claim I won due to the simple fact that I survived. The kids claim they won when I stopped it after 45 minutes. Whatever. It was a great memory for me and the kids!

I sustained only minor injuries and the kids had a blast! The body heals, but memories like that never fade! SECRET: (KIDS SKIP THIS NEXT SENTENCE PLEASE!) The 'black eye' was done with make-up so that the next morning the kids would all think they gave me a black eye! It was a hit. (sorry for the pun, dad) It was fun to hear the boys arguing over who's snowball had nailed me in that eye! FYI: The Snowballer is an essential ministry tool NO children's ministry leader should be without! I wear mine in a holster! (I can throw up to 25 snowballs a minute with this, and they are perfectly packed baseball sized snowballs... that's how I held my own against 150 kids!)

Here is my little sister Melissa and her husband Keith. (note the wimpy electric blower!) Oh, no, now they will never let me borrow it again!

A beautiful day in paradise!

Here are some lovely trees across the street.... see the tree house?

Here is a closer look. Here's the story. A family is building a house across the street. The owner is contractor of some kind and claims the house will have a glass floor that you can see down into the basement family room. (Perfect for parents of dating teen-agers who are down there watching a movie!) Anyway, the lot was cleared and then they started building this awesome tree house. Dad said that he promised his son a tree house at the last house and never built it. So when they decided to build this house he said he would fulfill his promise and build the tree house before the house. I think that's pretty cool, and it is a sweet tree house, I've been up the retractable ladder and into it. It really is 'house.' Complete with real windows, siding, chumney, and BB Gun gun racks. :)

Here is our cute little house in a Winter Wonderland. BOOOO ORLANDO! You NEVER get this beautiful weather!