The Blizzard and the Gathering

It has snowed. A lot. Like tons. Like my dog can’t walk outside for fear of being lost in the snow. This snow arrived on Sunday night into Monday and my dear city has been crippled ever since. There’s great uproar over the poor management of the snow removal and according to my dad after things cool down “heads will roll.”
Normally, I love when it snows! And while I still couldn’t resist the magic that is a white, snow-covered world, I wasn’t exactly thrilled that the blizzard chose this of all weekends to make it’s appearance. I mean surely it could have waited till it resulted in a snow day from school, right?? Alas, such was not the case. But more than the snow day, I wanted to be able to head over to Hatfield, PA for the Ziegler Family Gathering. My mom’s side of the family (and her mom’s beyond her) gather at this time every year for food, fun, and fellowship. I can’t remember I time that we missed this gathering and the Christmas season wouldn’t be the same without it.
So, about a day after the snow dropped on our city like a bomb, my brother and I began the task of digging out our vehicle hoping (at least I was) that when we finally did free the car from the snow’s icy grip that it would be able to handle the snow that was left on the road. We had yet to test out this van’s snow driving capabilities. We successfully freed our car and began our trek to PA. With only a couple struggles (we had to dig out at one point) and after seeing some astounding sights (we passed a bus that had been stuck since Sunday night), we managed to make it to the highway for what we figured would be free sailing, or, you know, driving.
Well it wasn’t quite free and clear from then out. The NJ Turnpike bogged us down quite a bit and our 2 hour trip took 4 hours instead. Good thing we left extra time!
We finally made it and it was well worth the stress. My family is quite a group when we all gather together. I think the total number reached about 75 this year. We even make a pretty decent choir. I’d show you the video but it’s only on Facebook and that link doesn’t work. But you can take my word for it that it was a good night. Especially, because I got to introduce this young man to my family!