Early Friday morning, in the wee hours, we received a major ice storm, frosting the area with well over 1" (closer to 2" in many areas) of ice. As breathtakingly beautiful as it is, it has devastated the area. At one point, almost 200,000 people were without electricity, limbs were down all over the city, blocking roadways, and it was one major mess. So far, my power has only shut off and on for a few seconds at a time, always coming back on. I seem to be in a little pocket that has power, as even across the street, there is not a light to be found. Not even street lights. In my alley, however, the lights are working. It's literally, night and day between my front and back yard.

This is my little bird bath and small garden area. The ornamental grasses are quite pretty in their ice suits.

As of this afternoon, about 70,000 remain without their power. Crews have been brought in from surrounding states to speed up the electricity hook ups. The bad news is that we won't have any warm up for at least a week, which will keep the ice hanging on, and tonight, we are supposed to get a small snowfall of 1 to 3 inches. That wouldn't be a problem except that the weight of the snow is expected to cause more damage and power outages.

Well, I guess there's nothing to do but stay inside and enjoy the beauty. As long as I have power, I'm content. And we will definitely have a white Christmas!