Deegan Family Blog: The Blizzard that Ate Christmas

We had some grand plans for the holidays this year... we were headed down to Long Island with all of the usual festivities, xmas eve with Grandpa DaDa, dinner at Dan & Paulettes, then a late evening rendezvous at the Rising Family xmas gathering... but in addition to all that, the plan was to head into Manhattan for xmas day and have the Kulis family christmas at Kenny & Zanne's new apartment. And, since they generously offered to put us up in their guest bedroom (what luxury in Manhattan!), Andy, Aiden, Haley and I were going to stay overnight and spend the next day exploring the city. Aiden had never been to NYC before, other than driving through it (always too frustrating to point out much of anything in between honking and cursing) so we were excited to show him the big tree at Rockefeller Center, all the tall skyscrapers, and (of course) the dinosaurs at the Museum of Natural History. We hyped it ALL up. Of course. And then...

THE BLIZZARD THAT ATE CHRISTMAS!!! OH NO!!

We did make it in to Manhattan, and had a wonderful dinner and evening with the Kulis clan (including Great Grandma Guppy)...but with everyone on their smartphones and ipads all evening relaying the moment-to-moment changes in the forecast for the next morning and subsequent two days... we chickened out/smartened up and headed back out to the island later that night. It was a definite bummer; I felt terrible breaking the news to Aiden that he wouldn't get to see the huge T. rex skeleton after all (maybe summer?) but he took it like a typical four-year-old. Which is to say, he was sad for about 5 minutes and then moved on to the next most exciting thing going on... cool, i get to watch back-to-back Dinosaur Train episodes all the way back to Grandma's house? Awesome!

The blizzard trapped us in the house with blowing 50mph winds, sleet, and snow all of the next day. Luckily we had a giant stash of xmas loot to entertain us. When all the swirling flakes settled, there was well over a foot of heavy wet snow to shovel (thanks Andy) before we could venture out onto semi-trecherous roads to continue our holiday visiting. We spent a nice lunch play-date with William and Elizabeth at the Hamm's house, popped in on the Great Grandma Rising and the Siegers to meet little (big!) Peter, and then headed back over to Grandpa Dada's for one more dinner. It was our usual whirlwind tour, only shorter and with higher winds! Merry Christmas to everyone :) Photos of our adventures below...