White Christmas: winter wonderland magic or precarious and worrisome travel conditions?

Irving Berlin wrote one of the most famous holiday songs of all time. Most people know it as Bing Crosby's song, but he just happened to sing it for White Christmas and Holiday Inn. (Both absolute classics, btw. If you haven't seen them yet, go look for them right now.) Berlin wrote the song in 1942 and it has stuck around to the point that people know the expression better than they know the origin of it. (Which basically puts it in the same category as kleenex, xerox, and chapstick.) There's always such a note of happiness that seems to ring out when "white Christmas" is spoken. After all, the song talks about a longing for a Christmas with glistening trees and sleigh bells ringing.

Today I woke up and was rather excited to find that there was a nice little coating of freshly fallen snow. This is was it looked like at breakfast time:

We thought that my brother's family wasn't going to be able to make it to open up stockings, but they braved the snow and they walked in the door at 11 o'clock! Such a fun Christmas surprise! They stayed for a bit but then headed to the in-laws house for the rest of their Christmas celebration (we had them for Christmas Eve). Now we come to the part when the snow still looks pretty, but reality starts to sink in a bit. My parents live in a rather hilly, slightly secluded neighborhood. Whenever there's threat of snow or ice the neighbors either plan to sit it out or drive their cars down to the bottom of the neighborhood hill.

We walked the kids and Megan down to the car (1 mile) where Dad and Joel were waiting. It was lovely to see the tree boughs covered and the snow softly falling. The whole world seemed to be white and quiet as we trudged and attempted to slide to the bottom. Then we watched as Joel's Blazer slid getting out of the post office parking lot and Megan's van wheels spun in an effort to pull out into the intersection. A couple of tense moments were had by all. Then back up the hill we trudged (1 mile). Strangely enough I was rather energized by the exercised and then dived into a flurry of activity getting our big meal ready. (I choose to make roasted root vegetables, kale with mushrooms, and an apple-pear pie.)

Later this evening we began to wonder what the chances were of Stin and Marc catching their 6am flight out of AVL regional airport. Turns out it got cancelled and they had to rebook through GSP, about 1.25 hours away on a good day. Let's remember it's 1 mile to where the car is parked. In snow. Lots of snow. Did I mentioned that it snowed for most of the day and looked like this in the evening?

It looks pretty, it's not that thick. But still, that's some slippery stuff for ya. So, Stin, Marc, and Dad packed everything up. Since more snow was predicted in the early morning hours and there was no telling what they might encounter between here and Greenville they decided to head out tonight to catch the 6 am flight. They covered all the luggage in garbage bags, packed it on sleds, bundled up, made sure they had food and sleeping bags, and then finally braved the dark snowiness to get down to the car.

Snow is no joke at 10:30 at night. An hour later Dad called to say they had finally made it down, did a little shoveling, and were hitting the road.

So I put it to you, do you really want a white Christmas?

P.S. Dad still says "yes" after having arrived back home at 3:45 am.