Did you know that today, almost every state in the U.S. has snow except for good ol’ Florida? Even Hawaii, which was at first thought to be the only holdout, got it’s share of fresh snow atop Mauna Kea mountain.

Everywhere you look online today, the topic is snow. I was reading somewhere that Wordless Wednesday‘s photos are almost all of snow! Some people experienced their first snow in their lifetime between yesterday and today! We had our share of snow and ice too, but not as much as some areas. The main problem for us was ice and the fact that yesterday was the scheduled day for my daughter to return to college. Luckily, the ice problem wasn’t as bad and we didn’t lose electricity which is always the main concern everytime it ices around here.

Schools in our area closed yesterday and today, and actually my college girl’s classes were also posponed to start tomorrow so she didn’t have any classes today yet either. But we still managed to get her there yesterday. The roads were actually not that bad, they were wet and a bit icy but certainly still driveable. We made it there and back without incident.

Today, the sun came out! It’s still freezing cold though, but at least the sun helps to melt some of the ice on the roads. I have a feeling the kids will be going back to school tomorrow. I came in to the office today and the drive was actually not that bad, just cold!

Good thing I didn’t commit to any of the everyday/356 blogging projects going around, because I would have fallen off the wagon already. I really did have the best of intentions to start off this year right. I was going to cook up a storm on New Year’s Eve then stay up all night blogging about it and wishing all my friends well for the New Year. Ah, they were grand plans!

I had such high hopes and I almost pulled it off! I did cook up a storm worthy of the winter wonderland we were blessed with on Christmas. For the New Year Eve’s supper I had lined up a surf and turf meal (ribeye steaks and shrimp scampi) complete with loaded baked potatoes or rice, a huge salad and I forget now what was dessert, but I know we had something. I can’t remember because beyond getting all the food prepared, everything quickly became a faint and hazy memory. See, as soon as I pulled the steaks off the broiler, that damned migraine, the one that I don’t usually have to mess with but once a year, decided to strike before I could put them steaks down and it struck hard! You’d think something jumped out of the oven and hit me over the head!

I heard dinner was great and the girls got to talk to all our family in California via Skype. I heard some mini sausages even got fried into mini-corndogs and they were great.

I wouldn’t know. I was splayed out in bed, my arms over my eyes and wishing sleep would claim me and save me from the torture. I woke up on the first morning of the New Year still with a pounding headache despite several Tylenol pills.

I stayed in bed for most of the day, but I couldn’t possibly let the first day of 2011 go by with me lying in a darkened room and nothing cooked, could I? Of course not!

I dragged myself up and called up my girls who turned out to be troopers. Way to start the year, girls! Between us, we managed to keep the kitchen clean and put together a pretty decent first dinner for 2011.

We baked some cornish hens but not with the sweet glaze or rice stuffing as we did in the recipe posted on our blog. It was just plain roasted like you would a turkey or chicken. By the way, don’t you just love how the six cornish hens fit perfectly in the paella pan?

In addition we also had some cornbread stuffing, black-eyed peas, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, and gravy. Oh don’t forget the canned cranberry jelly! So shoot me. lol! they were good and we found a can in the pantry, so there!

After dinner though, it was back to bed for me and for the rest of the weekend all the way into Monday when I finally got to see my doctor to adjust my meds and all was made well again.

So today is officially my first day of the New Year. I got out of bed with just a trace and fading hint of a migraine, the sun was shining, I got dressed and got to work and nothing disintegrated in my absense. All is good.

Happy New Year! And here’s to more days like today!

P.S. excuse the photos, my daughter took them from her cell phone. It was just too much effort to pull out my camera and plate stuff.

One reason I loved Christmas when the kids were younger was how well behaved they would be leading up to it! When they are being bad, lazy or getting ready to have another melt down, I start singing “You better watch out, you better not pout, you better not cry I’m telling you why…” Amazing how effective that song was! I miss it.

Now I have jaded teens who send me links to their wish list via email or text. No more hand written letters to Santa and definitely no more leverage to blackmail them into behaving. The song just doesn’t cut it anymore. They just laugh at me now when I start singing.

But that’s alright, I don’t really need to sing the song. I didn’t really need to sing it a lot to make them behave when they were younger either. I just liked singing it. lol! Seriously, they’re good girls and we’re very proud of them.

We had a quiet Christmas observance this year, just the five of us and we were blessed with the very first ever white Christmas! It’s been nice hunkering down and enjoying the snow outside. I hope you had a great celebration with your family.

A few more photos of the snow are posted In Our Backyard.

It really would have been too good to be true to have a snow day Monday. My daughters would have taken a two hour delay as it was bone chilling cold yesterday and this morning when we left the house. But, as luck would have it, the roads were clear and the sun is out again in the Carolinas. It’s still freezing though!

Here are a couple photos taken during last Saturday’s snow fall. It was our first snow fall of the year and the earliest that most of us can remember