I was thinking about making this post’s title a winter wonderland since this week the Pacific Northwest has been encased in snow and ice. Temperatures become arctic and dangerous by the end of the week. A winter bomb cyclone came through and made for a frosty start of the Christmas week.

It all started Sunday night where snow flakes started as I was made my way to a Christmas party. By the next morning it was a frosty crunchy dusting that cause a few of us at work to be late. But Monday night the snow really started to come down! I made it home in time before it started dumping and the roads becoming icy. By the morning there was upwards of 2-3 inches of snow in the Seattle and still was coming down.

As the week went on, the temperatures went down as low as 2 degrees F with a wind chill in the negatives. The cold started to cause my hands, and lips to crack as I tried to keep up with moisturizing. I joked to a coworker about my “Nordic” hands as I saw them cracking a bleeding. One morning I walked out to my car to go to work to see the car registering the temperature at 16 degrees F and the liquid de-icer kept freezing to the windshield and the windows. This will be the first time I drove my new car from last year in this type of weather, and have to say AWD has been a blessing compare to not having it.

Nothing was crazy until Friday morning when a winter bomb cyclone caused a dangerous freeze that made going out extremely dangerous for everyone and causing travel chaos. Work told all of us the day before that it was on critical testing to be done, and only critical staff needed to come in, and everyone else had to work from home. I could not complain since I got to do my work with the cat on my lap for warmth. By the evening, the temperature warmed up to where it was melting the dangerous ice.

Which brings me to Christmas parties….

They did not really happened this week. I was hoping to go to work with a holiday theme headband (Santa Hat, Reindeer Antlers, Suzie Lu bow, and Whoville Hat). But it did not happen since I really needed to wear a beanie hat in most of the labs this week to keep warm! This also meant the team holiday party at Honey Bear Bakery did not happen because of the snow, and ended up being a last minute pizza party in a meeting room. I canceled a few other Christmas parties or events this week due to the weather conditions and yet for some reason I felt it was really needed to recharge from the non-stop holiday events in the past few weeks.

The good news is, Christmas has arrived (if you are reading this day of) and with it a new year. It seems right around this time of the winter equinox we begin to look forwards to days becoming longer and the days warmer. The darkest night of the year has passed and the joy of what comes next.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays to you all!