Did I mention snow?

We've received a heckuvalot of snow. My mom is supposed to be arriving today by train, but the train hasn't even been running. They're tentatively planning to restore service today, but even getting her to the train station down on her end is presenting major challenges, since cabs, buses, and everday mere mortals are not driving on the streets of Portland.

Mom, this is for you:

I didn't get my act together to make more cloth giftbags this year, but I am trying my hand at wrapping in cloth. I think it works pretty well. Probably not quite the same satisfaction as tearing into wrapping paper, but will be very gratifying to the types who carefully open gifts and then save the paper (lol - my mom falls into this second category).

Some snow pics...

Our backyard Christmas tree when we had our first dusting of snow about 1 1/2 weeks ago (it was about 2 inches of snow, which at the time seemed significant, but now seems like nothing more than a trace):


Here's a picture of the tree yesterday morning, about 16 inches more snow later:




This is the frontyard, back when we thought we really had snow (about 12 inches):


See my neighbor's sagging roof in this next picture? It probably comes as no surprise that six more inches of snow later, it completely collapsed, taking the deck below with it (the house itself is alright, and we took him homemade cookies and fudge to cheer him up):


I'm becoming more proficient at shoveling. We're expecting another six inches of snow in the next couple of days, but I'm not sure where I'm supposed to stack it.