I am glad that I got my SS out already, though. Hopefully it has arrived/will arrive soon. And my gift already got here from the west coast. I'm going to open it tonight. Yay!

Yeah, I live where major snowfalls are rarer. But even as a kid (in the rural Midwest, so no public transportation of any kind), a foot of snow during the week usually meant a day or two off school. Because bus full of kids on rural roads, some of which are the last the plows get to? Not gonna happen.

We did get one day off school for only 4 inches. But that was because high wind blew it into drifts.

Up here (Central New York, near Lake Ontario) it's really rare for the kids to get off from school. It snows all. winter. long., and we get a lot of the lake effect snow. I will say they keep the roads well plowed and salted, but the boys were horrified to learn that the six inches that would have kept them out of school in PA is laughable here.

Eighteen inches is several days off work

A couple of hours if your lucky. They used to give sun days occasionally back in the heydays before oil crashed in the 80s. But not since I've been here.

When my cousins were young in Anchorage, they got a new superintendent from Florida. First snow, he cancelled school. There was much joy among the students. Some adults took him aside and had a chat. That was the last snow day that year.

Edited because I know better than to make a plural with an apostrophe, really.

::bounces into thread::

My Secret Santa gift arrived, and quester outdid herself! The box overflowed with goodies, and they were all so cool! (And all the stuff just for me was wrapped in shiny purple paper!)

For me there were beautiful crescent moon earrings in a beautiful little wooden box with "Joy" carved on the front, a crescent moon Christmas ornament (I think it's definitely an ornament, quester -- at any rate, it's on the tree now!), a SILVER CIGARETTE CASE that made me squee out loud (!!!), the best fridge magnet ever (St. Von Nicholas of Myra, Patron Saint of Cakes and Cookies), notepads and playing cards and a gorgeous 2007 desk calendar of Peru, and all kinds of things for the family -- wind-up chattering teeth and a frog and a penguin and a platypus (I think), a Wizard of Oz flip book, and another Christmas ornament, which Sara has already claimed. Oh! And pirate bandages and a harmonica!

Best. Box. Ever. So many goodies, and such cool ones, too. Thank you, quester!

Eeeeee!

Here I am, sitting at work, and my co-worker brings in this big box from LUSH! I was puzzled at first, and said "I don't *remember* ordering anything from Lush...."

Lo, it was a prezzie for me! The aptly-named "Serenity" gift box, full of stuff I love and stuff I've been wanting to try! I want to go home now now now and take a bath! And then another bath! And then a shower! And a bath again!

I have only one question, though, which may seem silly: *which* Stephanie was my Santa? Vortex, or Ellie's mom?

My thanks are just as abundant regardless of which Steph was the Santa for me-Steph, but I just want to know who to thank....

OMG, I forgot to mention the very best part of my silver cigarette case -- aside from the fact that my 100s actually fit inside! -- it's an Alice in Wonderland case, with the Caterpillar smoking the hookah on a mushroom while Alice peeks up at it.

LOVE.

Okay, now I want to start smoking again, just so I can have a cigarette case like Amy's.

What I need now is a big fancy dress ball to go to, so I can elegantly withdraw my gorgeous cigarette case from a cunning little evening bag.

Not that there are any fancy parties where they let you smoke anymore, damn it all.

I have only one question, though, which may seem silly: *which* Stephanie was my Santa? Vortex, or Ellie's mom?

Nope, I was last year. I am sensing some "fixing" of the secret stephanie santas