A Visit From Jonas This Weekend

I know many of us had a visitor named Jonas this weekend.  For us, it was a rare weekend where we didn't have to go anywhere, my husband wasn't on call, and we were expecting no other company.  Since it's already late January, and we'd only received a few inches of snow this winter, we were excited at our house and hopeful that we would get at least half a foot.

This sign I drew for our front porch expressed our sentiments as we went to bed Friday night.  The forecast said we might receive anywhere from 1 inch to 10 inches over the next day or so.

We awoke Saturday morning to a winter wonderland of a foot of snow!

It continued to snow throughout the day Saturday.  The snow got higher and higher until the winds started blowing it around.

It was rather pointless to shovel driveways or paths until late in the afternoon.

All of our children spent a great part of the day outside building forts, throwing snowballs, eating snowflakes, and...

...Sledding!

Lots and lots of sledding.

Even Hubby got in on the action by making paths and sledding too.  He made me promise I wouldn't post any photos of him on the sled though.  It's too bad because those were some of my best pictures.  Sigh...

By the end of the day, we got somewhere between 14 and 16 inches, as far as we could tell.

We woke up this Sunday morning to the sun shining through the pine trees and glistening on the snow.

And the sky was this breathtaking blue.

Snowstorm Jonas was a perfect visitor for us this weekend, and he didn't disappoint.  Our prayers go out, however, to all those stranded on the turnpike, who lost electricity and heat, and to those families who lost loved ones due to the storm.  Here in the Alleghenies, while we did get a whopper of a snowstorm, we were spared the absolute worst of it and were able to enjoy our visitor and a day of being snowed in at home.

I'd love to hear stories from those of you who also met Jonas this weekend.  How did you spend these three days?