Snowbound with power

Mom and Dad went out to their beach house this weekend to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Then the weather caught up with them and shut down Highway 18/22. So they were stuck out there. Yesterday they decided to drive south far enough to find a clear mountain pass to get back to the Valley. They returned home to find their house didn't have power, which is manageable if you don't have house guests driving up from California.

Steve and Beth left Cupertino yesterday morning to have Christmas in Oregon. They made surprisingly good time and found the passes to be completely clear in Southern Oregon. Steph and I intercepted them before they went to Grammy & Popscotchs' since they were out of power. We still have power even though it has gone off and on a few times very briefly. Steve had been craving pancakes all day since he heard Maddie say cranberries for some reason, so we went to IHOP for dinner and then the whole gang came home with us for a slumber party. This is Sophie's dream- a slumber party with her California Cousins (thats what she calls them). Soph's other dream is breakfast for dinner (brinner), so IHOP and California Cousins is a dream come true.

The weather report called for the snow to melt away and rain to come this morning. Nope. More snow. We had been nervous that S&B wouldn't come because of the weather so we're really happy to have them and it seems they came on the perfect day before the weather got worse.

Breakfast (Steve's still asleep, go figure):
One of our icey magnolias:

Five inches snow, an inch of ice, and a few more inches of snow: