It's been over a week of snow days. Much of it now with real live snow. More snow than Seattle has seen in probably fifteen years. Let's just point out what we've missed:

A doctor's appointment—rescheduled for New Year's Day

The writer's workshop celebration—A girl in Rose's class was providing the treat for this class party and had made a special batch of gluten-free Norwegian Kringle just for Rose. So, her mom wanted to make sure we still got it, a whole batch after all. I pulled Rose and David on the sled to their house. It worked out great. An impromptu play date and a really good new gluten-free treat.

The Wednesday night dance and the Saturday night dance.

The Hannukah party with random Jews from Rose's school—My sister and brother-in-law, who are very good at community building, had a Sukkot party in the fall for all the Jews at the elementary school. (How do we know who the Jews are? Self-disclosure, word-of-mouth, the big yellow star, um, I mean they attend our same synagogue. . .) A mom we've just hung out with on the playground was going to throw a Hannukah party. I was really looking forward to getting to know her better, but her husband had to work from home and a house full of kids would not be conducive for that. No party.

The cookie exchange party with my high school friend.

The cookie decorating party with my college friend.

Mom's party where we watch the Christmas ships on Lake Washington and get to socialize with grown-ups.

The big Hannukah party at synagogue. This was going to have latkes and dreidals of course, but also a magician. I also do very little at synagogue, and it was going to be a chance for me to get to know more people.

Rose's playdate with Miriam and her grandparents.

The gay men's chorus Christmas concert. I was really looking forward to this one. My high school friend and I were going to go tonight, but she didn't feel safe driving. I seriously considered taking the bus, but they were running 1-2 hours late. I didn't want to be a wimp, but I also didn't see the point of standing out in the snow for 2 hours, both ways.

That's 11 events x'd because Seattle usually has no reason to invest in snow removal equipment. I get it. I'm happy I live in a fun neighborhood with fun neighbors and don't mind hanging around it. But dang.