Winter hath returned with a vengeance!  (I’m sure that’s not original, but it sounds very appropriately dramatic.)  Actually, winter returned a few weeks ago, and at the moment it is making up for all the time it lost here in December while it was off vacationing in Denver.  Not that anyone is surprised by this; any seasoned Michigander knew the mild weather we had for the holidays wouldn’t last.

Let me backtrack a couple months.  The first 8 days of December brought us an ice storm, several days of almost constant snowfall, hazardous conditions, and a couple near-blizzards.  Then… Nothing.  Temperatures rose, the mounds of snow melted, and no more came to take its place.  Weeks went by.  Christmas came and went, green as could be.  The new year started out downright balmy, and on the third of January, I actually hung out laundry.  That’s not normal for January in Michigan.  And although many around me were rejoicing, I secretly kind of missed “normal”.

Well, normal has returned, and then some.  Snow and icy roads were the order of the day by January fifteenth, and winter really has not let up since.  And now, we have ourselves a blizzard, and I do mean a blizzard.  Weather reports have monopolized the local TV stations all day long;  police have been warning motorists to stay off the roads; sections of expressways have been shut down due to 50+-car pile-ups; many churches have cancelled services for tomorrow (which is supposed to be worse than today); even malls and movie theatres are closed.  We have 15” of snow in the front yard, 22” drifts on the back deck, and are scheduled to get anywhere from 7-13” more dumped on us tonight.

And I say, bring it on.

Why?  Because I have four things that I did not have two winters ago, nor any preceding winter since I have been grown and married.  I have:  A fireplace.  Another fireplace.  An adequate mudroom.  And a garage.

Now granted, the mudroom is four months new and still contains nary a hook nor a shelf.  The only physical evidence of the six individual cubbies that will eventually grace this space are the vertical pieces of lumber, cut to size, rounded and routed, leaning up against one wall.  The rest of the project still exists only in sketches and plans and notes scribbled on scratch paper and Panera Bread napkins.  Oh, there are bins lined up along the wall, patiently  awaiting the shelves which they will someday call home, and these are full of gloves and hats and scarves and …soccer shinguards.  (Yes, it’s indoor soccer this time of year.)  As for the snowpants and coats, well, there’s always the floor for those for the moment.  It beats cramming them onto the pitifully inadequate row of hooks in the kitchen like we did last year, and even an unfinished 4x12’ mudroom trumps the tiny space that used to pass for one back at our old house.

And the garage.  Oh, how I love finally having a garage, and an attached one at that.  Before we annexed approximately 100 square feet of it for our mudroom and half-bath, this garage was slightly larger than our old house, basement notwithstanding.  Unfortunately, about half of this space is taken up by tools & lumber from a previous business of hubby’s (which he somehow can not find room for in his 2400-sq-ft shop), so what we essentially have is a 3-car garage which holds only one vehicle.  That’s fine with me, as long as that one vehicle is MINE.  And it is.  Because, you know.  I. Am. The. Mom.  True, I did have to give up my spot for about three weeks last fall when our mudroom-and-half-bath project was first underway;  there was a table saw parked in my spot, and so I had to park outside under the maple tree.  But that was fall.  Pigeon poop on my door handles I can tolerate; ice on my van is another matter entirely.  (Funny how I lived with that for 23 years, but now having had a garage for 18 months, I am irreparably spoiled.)

So yes.  I have a garage.  I have a mudroom.  I have two fireplaces.  I have food in the pantry, more food in the freezer, extra blankets in the closet.  I have DVDs, CDs, books, sudokus and crosswords, a computer.  And I have my family.  Who needs to go anywhere?  Let it snow, let it snow, etc.

(Now that I think about what I just wrote…  “I have my family.  Who needs to go anywhere?” …By mid-afternoon tomorrow, that will probably be amended to, “And I have my family.  They are all driving me NUTS!  Please, I need to go somewhere!  Or I need them to go somewhere!  Anywhere!....”)

Oh, yes, and I have that new camera, and I have been documenting the snowfall.  I will see if I get a chance to post some pics tomorrow.