Christmas Snow at Donerail Farm!

It rarely snows in Houston, and it has NEVER snowed on Christmas Eve/Christmas Day. Ever. The last time we had measurable snow was in 1989. So this was the best Christmas present ever!
It started snowing/sleeting on Christmas Eve afternoon. We were sitting at Joe's BBQ (THE local Alvin hangout) on Christmas Eve around 2 p.m. when I looked out the window and was astonished to see tiny sleet or snow balls coming down. All the patrons at Joe's were amazed. It continued off and on throughout the afternoon, but nothing stuck to the ground. On our way to the movies around 6:30 p.m., it was coming down hard - still nothing sticking to the ground, though. We got home, fed the horses and I started working in the kitchen. When I went out the back door to do the bed check on the horses, I was absolutely astonished to see our entire back yard blanketed with about 2-3 inches of snow. I started screaming like a little kid to Mike to come and see it (much to Mike's amusement, since he lived in Kansas, Boston and New Jersey and has seen just enough snow in his life, thank you very much. ;))  Anyway, it was quite an amazing occurance to this Houston native and a pretty nifty Christmas present. Even better, it stayed throughout the night, and didn't completely melt until the day after Christmas!  What a wonderful Christmas present.


 

It was a winter wonderland Christmas morning!
Looking from our back porch to the barn. The horses had a view of the snow-covered backyard. The bright white reflection you see is the camera flash off of a decorative street sign.		 Another view of the backyard.

The Horses Meet Snow!
Most of our horses have never seen snow. They were not quite sure what the funny white stuff was, and they seemed to be thinking "Where did the grass go????"
Fling had to stick her nose in it to see if it was edible.

Nanja, who usually would rather be out in the pasture than in her stall, even in the worst weather, tried to make a beeline back to her stall just after I took this picture. :) She was the most suspicious of the white stuff.
They have not figured out how to dig through the snow to the grass yet. It's a good thing it will probably melt by noon!
Abba, the white horse, is not fazed by snow. He spent part of his life in New Jersey. He's probably thinking, "I thought I left this *(&^)#@%* behind years ago!"

Here's our "rain gauge" filled with snow. So, is 5 inches of snow like 5 inches of rain? :)  Do they make snow gauges??? :)