JanRN your home is beautiful, thank you for the snow. Our winters are very mild here in the tropics about three weeks of winter clothes and then it is back to shorts and tees. In summer it is very hot and very humid, thank goodness for airconditioners.
Our cyclones are just like your hurricanes, Cyclone Yasi which hit us last year was 100 miles wide with winds up to 150 miles per hour, we were only 30 miles from where the eye of the storm hit. Businesses and homes in town are still getting repaired.

What a good read this morning! .... my first time to this thread!

I smiled ....

MiraB's three weeks of winter clothes per year ... for some reason, I doubt it's "winter" clothing, at all!! :) (all in perspective, right MiraB?) So you want to see and experience SNOW ... then come on over to Canada and the USA this winter and we'll show you SNOW!!!!!!! ... and you can find out what winter clothes are really like!! :D

OKSGlad's comments about JanRN's past DSM quilting ... I read as DearSewingMachine! ... oh how our brains get trained!

JanRN's winter photo of her home ... beautiful and just like a Christmas card. Maybe you should get some made?

And without a doubt about JanRN's S16 ... that's a big yahoooooooooooooooey! :)
I really don't think I could have waited for the men-folk to get around to help setting it up!!!! :D
Heaven forbid ... the box that will never be opened ... has been opened!!!!!!!! ... want to bet, Ladies, that JanRN will turn those into a beautiful result!

Honchey have you got those google maps put together and ready to drive on over to help JanRN play? And now we know your weakness to marshmallows! I think the Jumbos would be a much more worthwhile snack than the minis ... they always seem tough, so go for the cloud of heavenly taste instead! Make it worthwhile. Now that'd be one big poofy sweet potato casserole! :D

As always QNSue's stories bring smiles ... the young filly in particular! And oh how those ducks have been saved. Now we all have to wait for spring hatchings! And that cake ... OMG must be absolute heaven!! :)
Belated birthday greetings to you, indeed ... remember you are only as old as you act ... so me-thinks you are much younger than the calendar claims!!! Hope you celebrated in a special way, and perhaps with another big delectable cake!

OKSGlad ... ITA with your kids! Snow days really were NOT fun for us on the farm. Always work to do, and it only doubled up the work.

Snow stories ... After my husband and I left the family farm and were off on our own, our farm had a 1/2 mile laneway, and when it snowed, we'd be blocked in .... though on a farm, you HAVE to keep it open. Milk truck comes every 2nd day, cattle breeder has to come, oil for the house, maybe the vet, feed trucks, etc. In wicked weather, this laneway would sometimes require us to blow them in ... and back out again! It was quite the ordeal! The neighbour below us had the long laneway. We both always said we looked forward to those snow days and after Christmas started to stockpile for January's worse, and had craft/sewing ready plus I would make bread and do other baking ....... in between shoveling the snow at the door and barn chores! Thankfully on the farm, there's minimal shovelling, and most is machine handled! And now ... I let a neighbour farmer clear my lane and that just leaves a little for me!!! :D

I think of all the times I fought my way thru dangerous conditions to get to work and home. One winter there were several storms that had us storm-stayed at work, overnight. Or I'd only get part way home and stayed with friends.

And now, I'm the other way ... if I can avoid it, I do!!!
Now, I use the snow for every excuse I can to stay home and ........... yup, sew! :)
Good deal, if you ask me! :)