And the car doors opened with a crackling of ice

So they have these things out here in Chicago called ice pellets and freezing rain. Both just charming events. The snow started around 11 am today and that was cool. Came down pretty hard and stuck to the ground. We loved it. Of course, we were in our hotel room all cozy and warm. My daughter flew in this afternoon and arrived at the hotel around 4:30pm. She and her family were greeted by snow balls thrown by my son and his stepsons. Nice welcome.

This hotel has an indoor pool and while the kids were swimming, my son offered the boys $10 if they would go outside in their swimming trunks and make snow angels. They did it! Froze their butts off, but now they're $10 richer. There isn't enough money in the world..........

We all had dinner together at a great Cajun seafood place. But it was "raining" the whole time we were in the restaurant and that rain turned out to be sleet or freezing rain or something like that. By the time we left, everything was icy. We had to scrape the windows with an actual ice scraper!! The car doors were frozen shut and the curbs and street were a sheet of ice. I mean, people actually live in this!

When we got back to the hotel we had trouble finding a place to park where we could actually walk in. I thought for sure my sister was going to take a header on the ice. It was pretty scary. But now we're cozy and warm in the room. Although, if it rains tonight and the temperature gets down to the predicted 16 degrees, I'm guessing tomorrow will be a bit harrowing. I'm very glad my daughter talked me into buying pseudo-Uggs a couple of years ago!

Tomorrow is my dad's memorial service. Hopefully we've planned a celebration that he would have enjoyed.