Blizzard Alvin Sabotages Christmas

We just returned from Hatton after spending the night of the 24th and all day of the 25th and 26th sitting around in sweatpants at my parents' house watching every dvd anyone got for a gift and anything else that was on TV. None of our expected guests were able to come and it was pretty boring. We didn't get to do our "As Seen on TV" gift exchange game and my Grandma was stuck by herself in Red Lake Falls. There were no cousin antics or jokes about eating beans. I got alot of presents though! Including a new camera and computer! Here are some photos I took. . .







These three spend several hours of Christmas day playing "The Farming Game" (Which, if you didn't know, is a monopoly-esqe game involving crops, livestock and market fluctuations.) I don't think I've ever seen this game played in my life but it finally saw the light of day!

This was taken out the front door on Christmas night. It's hard to see, but it is still raging out there. I thought the little trees looked pretty.
On the 26th I put on some snowpants and went trudging around the yard while my dad was busy with his snowblower tractor attachment. (He also went to our neigbor's house because his snowblower was trapped in a garage with a huge drift in front of it and also out of gas! What a mess this whole weekend was!) Once it was possible to leave the yard, Justin and Pete ignored the "no travel advised" warnings and went to Grand Forks. On the way they pulled the same car out of snow drifts 5 times (for real!) Pictured above is the huge drift against our garage.

Pretty trees. . .
We left the farm early this afternoon. We drove through town and I can say that I have seen alot of blizzards in my life, but I've never seen such big snow drifts. The whole fronts of houses and buildings were blocked! Then we were on our way back to Bismarck where we came upon. . .

This! And. . .

THIS! Oh, what fun. . .This took Justin about 1.5 hours to clear with a snowblower. Some kind neigbor had cleared the way to our front door and the sidewalk in front of the house, but other than that. . .I hope it doesn't snow for a few weeks. Snow removal is not fun. I have shoveled that driveway once this year when it snowed 2 inches (Justin has more) and I don't like it. I haven't done much shoveling in my life due to living in apartments and before that due to my dad's previously mentioned snow removal equipment. A drawback of having a house, for sure, but it's still worth it!