"The Great Christmas Snowstorm of '09"

...At least I think that's what they'll be referring to this one as. I was just on weather.com, and reading that this guy could be comparable to the Great Halloween Blizzard of 1991: cue memories of dad pulling me around on a sled in my snowsuit so I could still go trick-or-treating. At least getting goodies at Christmastime does not require setting a foot outside! It's just too bad church and Pa and Dava's house are too far away to be pulled there on a sled.

It has not started to snow here yet, but looking at the map, there are two storm systems-one from the north and one from the south-that look like they are getting ready to gobble us up.

Here's to being safe at home with a stockpile of coffee, a pile of presents under the tree (though even more still to wrap...), and yummy Christmas treats to keep our bellies full. Now if only our house had a fireplace...

24 Hours

What can be done in 24 hours? A lot of little things: household chores, shopping, watching TV, making and eating multiple meals, working out, sleeping. Even some big things: hosting a party, driving to another state, having a baby.

Or...

One really big thing.

Above: The second level of our floor plan for Dillard's, hypothetically located in North Grand Mall. Yes, that's right, I have been working on this rendering for the past 24 hours. I have printed, sketched, drawn, measured, markered, inked, colored penciled, re-markered, and re-inked every single line and every single stroke on that page. To put this to scale, this drawing is approximately 3 feet wide by 2 feet tall. (Very thankful that we downsized from originally having it be 5 feet wide by 3 feet tall...It would have been as wide as I am tall and I would still be working on it!)

Note that I also said second floor, meaning that right now, after I finish this blog post, I am going to whip out the first floor and do this all over again.

And what's a huge rendering like this without having a little fun? Below: a close-up of the lower left corner (near the customer service desk in our plan) of some Christmas trees and a Santa Claus (and yes this is a plan view, so it looks really awkward but Santa is sitting down and you are looking from above). What's a department store without a Santa Claus to visit and ask for all the goodies around you?

Tis the season (or very nearly)!