This the 18th consecutive year we've come home to my wife's childhood home, an 1850s farmhouse called Hickory Top. This visit is a quiet one because of the big storm and pre-planned shift of the big family gathering to Dayton tomorrow afternoon.

After watching a history of Christmas last night, Amy's mom observed that this house should be called Christmas House because it has existed entirely in the era of American-style Christmas, elements of which became popular in the mid-1800s. The name is fitting given all the great holiday memories that these walls contain.

Last night's dinner by candlelight took us back to that simpler era, but for just a short time until I started taking digital camera photos.

So, Merry Christmas from Christmas House!

- mike lee - greenville, oh

Moonrise over--not a remote mountain location, but the pile of snow in the parking lot of the Kroger's grocery store. The main roads in Greenville are passable, but the grocery store was pretty deserted. It was the gas station that was mobbed.

This was my first foray outdoors into an area that is still under high level snow emergency with a final count of 24" accumulation. The record is 31" south of Indianapolis. There are still cars stranded on I-70. The next force to deal with is the sub-zero temperatures Friday and Saturday night when it is supposed to drop to 15 below.

We're not going anywhere for a few days, but that's fine. We have broadband, DVDs, books, gadgets, and snacks to pass the days and hopefully some visitors!

- mike lee - greenville, oh

We awoke after one of those fitful sleeps where you do a slow blink and ten hours have instantly passed.

The storm is clearing after burying the region in record snow. Greenville even made it into the national wire reports on the big storm. The wind is picking up and we're headed into some days of deep cold which will make some big snow drifts appear.

Our agenda: nesting.

- mike lee -

Snowy night. A night to turn in early to catch up sleep.

- mike lee - greenville, oh

We arrived here in Greenville, Ohio about 11 long hours after we left Baltimore. We had a tired and cranky baby, but were welcomed by a very happy dog. The storm rages on with estimates of up to 16" accumulation in some areas.

I'm going to keep watching the Weather Underground's cool new Flash-based Zoom Satellite interactive map to see how this MASSIVE storm develops.

- mike lee - camera working again after yet another hard reset of my phone, but also trimmed the tabs on my rubber bumpers which were making the camera flicker and lock up

While visiting the Accuweather web site yesterday to read up on the snowstorm, I enjoyed taking some snapshots of the colorful information graphics. As we roll slowly north of Dayton, Ohio, it's good to know that we are experiencing the PUNISHING COLD of a MAJOR DISRUPTIVE snowstorm. I'm looking out for the red-edged wedge tanging with the green snakes of moisture or the concentric waves of punishing fog radiating from the north. I hope we all don't DIE!

- mike lee -

I got an e-mail from Friend Elizabeth on December 7th saying in part:

Hey, I dreamt last night I was walking around some kind of roadblock during a snowstorm and I saw you, Amy and Cianna drive up in a minivan. You stopped and we chatted.

Elizabeth must have been channeling the future because we had reserved a minivan the week before! And a couple days ago, we got the forecast for a big winter storm smack dab over our holiday destination.

So we decided to pick up the minivan several hours early at 2am last night at BWI and hit the road for an all-night drive to try to beat the worst of the storm. We're now 30 minutes west of Columbus, Ohio on 70 entering the storm. The steady flurry of big flakes has dropped a couple inches of snow on the ground already and traffic is slowing down to about 30 mph because the highway hasn't been plowed yet.

We haven't come to any roadblocks yet, but we have seen six accidents. We're staying hyper-alert. I'm fairly certain we won't run into Elizabeth out here since she's snug with family back in Baltimore, but she really got the big details right.

- mike lee - on rt. 70 between columbus and dayton, oh

Unless I discover a fix, there won't be any more photos because my phonecam stopped working in a burst of multi-colored static after I took this photo.

The sunlit window of this Airbus A319 frames the snow covered Ohio-Indiana border where I'll be for the holidays starting Wednesday night. In the next hour of eastward flight to DC, I'll glide over over ground that will take our family nine hours to traverse in return by car.

- mike lee - @ 30,000

...riding to the airport to catch a flight: no fun.

- mike lee - chicago

Back at the pleasant Sutton Place again where I have a peek at the lake and a room number that reminds me of the new year.

- mike lee - chicago ... heidi, that was a pomegranate.