THE CHRISTMAS BLIZZARD - part1

Late autumn came with its early afternoon dimness, encircling us all with wonderful snow showers. I was ecstatic at the first sight of snow!  A small child could not have been happier at the buoyancy of the nimble flakes as they softly fell on the back porch veranda.
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, snow and all its pleasures was just the needed ingredient to make the holiday a most cherished memory for years to come.

On and off  snow fell that fall, the heavens clearing a day before the holiday; lucky for us, since we were spending that Thanksgiving weekend with our cousins and their families in Mamaroneck, New York and we were due to drive that very day. We started early, so as not to be caught in the busy traffic and avoid driving into the darkness of early evening. After two hours, the pleasure of snow-covered fields turned to monotonous humdrum, especially when our daughter, who was sleeping on the back seat, in her car-bed, started to cough.  Unhooking my seat belt, I turned around on the passenger seat kneeling on it to tend to my child. Stunned, I saw her laying in a pool of fresh milky vomit while beaming a toothless grin. The stench was overpowering, but she seemed to be just fine.
Stopping the car – fortunately we were on a country road and traffic was slight – both of us proceeded to remove the baby, now six months old,  from her car-bed and to clean it with fresh snow and rags from the trunk. The clean bed and a new  change of clothes did nothing for the stink that settled in our Dodge Dart as we proceeded to our destination without further delay.

One important lesson: if you have a young one, never leave the house without a change of clothes (for you and your baby), a pack of paper towels and a bottle of water!

 After our return to Burlington, the frenzy of Christmas preparations and an early Hanuka made for a speedy December. On the 26th of the month we were due to fly to my parents’ to spend a few weeks basking in the Southern Hemisphere’s summer sunshine. Our suitcases had been packed for days! By December 23, five feet of snow had fallen in the Burlington area alone; our car was decidedly submerged in front of our apartment building.

With school holidays already in progress, children were ice skating and sledding on the street below us.  Later that morning, our family of three walked to the corner A&P store to purchase last minute items for the dinner we had planned for the few remaining foreign students from St Michael’s on Christmas Eve. I remember splurging on some candy canes to adorn our tree, two pints of eggnog and a frozen Christmas log -- a Bouche de Noel – for our holiday dessert.

The snow seemed to wane as a sun break appeared in the heavily opaque sky, our longingly awaited flight only three days away!

We spent most of that afternoon creating Christmas ornaments for our fresh albeit sparse Scotch fir. I had saved up empty paper towel cylinders which we wrapped in aluminum foil and then decorated with sequins and glitter to make them festive. These we hung from the tree along with lights and home-made tinsel. It truly looked amazing as we danced around it while our baby cheered us on as she crawled on the area rug.

Radio and TV reports announced delays and road accidents due to the subzero temperatures and snowy conditions in the Northeast; I believed however, that the snowfall would soon enough come to an end, so our travel plans could proceed.

Continued.....The Christmas Blizzard -part 2