Yes, you read that right... it snowed in Charleston. We had 7 inches and lost our electricity for 24 hours. I have to admit, it was the first time I really doubted buying a house as a single mother. Here I can barely change the airconditioner filters without falling on my you know what. Who puts them in the ceiling anyway? My mother had returned to Florida for a month so Kajal and I were on our own. Kajal had been missing her Grandmother and had been very confused by her leaving. The first night, she set her place at the dinner table, the second she looked at me blankly and said "I don't have a Grandmother any more" I had to remind her that just because her Grandmother was travelling and not physically with us it didn't mean that she still wasn't her Grandmother. Thank God for my mother. The sensible one. When the snow hit, I thought... beautiful, we finally have a taste of New England. I was thrilled. It was beautiful, we went outside and Kajal caught snow flakes in her mouth. She danced around in the light and breathtaking falling snow until the cold hit her full force and she ran inside screaming and crying that she 'hurt' all over.

I was watching the news as they talked of nearly 20,000 Charlestonians out of power and I thought, quite arrogantly, not me... I'm in a new house, the lines are all under ground. Literally, the next moment... Poof! The power and the tv went out. Blackness. Total blackness. Kajal was asleep thank goodness and I was shaking in my slippers. The house that I loved so much all of a sudden seemed massive with dark and creepy shadows everywhere. I remembered my mother's hurricane lamp in the front closet and tripping of the couch and dogs running scared I made my way slowly until I finally managed to find it and light it up. No electricity? What do I now? I picked up the phone to call the company then realized, d'uh, phone was electric.  I worried about warmth until I realized that I had a gas fireplace... yeah! Until I realized the switch that turned it on was electric.

I really wished I had a husband that night... that's the moment when you really feel alone... crazy for buying a house without someone who knows how to do more than put in a light bulb. My neighbors were all running generators and I thought, what would I even do with one if I had one? I'm not exactly Ms. Technical.

It all worked out thank God, Kajal woke to a world covered in a glistening white blanket and the world looked magical. Neighbors cooked chili and the children played with one another and before night rolled around again the snow had melted away and the electricity was back on. And me... I have a long list of emergency supplies that I've promised myself I'll have on hand the next time a storm hits. Hurricane, snow storm or otherwise.

It was funny though, here we move from New England to experience warm weather on a consistent basis and Charleston gets hit with the biggest snow storm they've had in fifty years.

our home after the snow