Breaking records

So, I was told today that this is the worst winter on record for Belgium - ever!  We have now experienced 18 days of snow in November and December.  The previous record was 14 days.  This NC girl has some major adjusting to do! 

Honestly, it is beautiful with a blanket of snow on everything; however, the infrastructure here is completely unequipped for this weather.  As such, the roads are pretty trecherous and just this morning I got stuck trying to drop the kids off for school!  If it weren't for the 20km one way treck to school each day, I would not dread the forecast with never ending snow days.  However, God has provided and we will have snow tires put on the car next Tuesday.  It is such a blessing because there is a huge shortage of snow tires all over Europe.  I went last week and reserved the last 4 snow tires at a location about 15 minutes from our house.  Thankfully, the children only have two more days of school before Christmas break and we will have a little over two weeks to hang out at the house and utilise the tram and metro if we need to go anywhere! 

I thought I would post a few more pictures of the magical scenery.

Most of the photos are taken at Woluwe Park less than a mile from our house.  It is a large natural area with walking trails and several large ponds.  Here you can see the water is frozen over with snow on it!

 

This picture reminded the kids of Narnia with the lamp post.

Do you notice the two small people in the bottom right corner of the photo below?  That would be Jenna and Ethan checking out the frozen water.

These next two photos are proof that the worrying mother was not around on this little excursion!  Here Jenna and Ethan are standing on the frozen pond!

And even further out!  I still can't believe this picture.  But when it hasn't been above freezing for nearly 3 weeks, I guess the ice is pretty thick.

I love this shot of Ave. de Tervuren.  It is the tree lined street very close to our house.  It was beautiful with the sun coming through the snow covered trees. 

And this is what the road at our house has looked like for at least the last 2 weeks!!  Completely covered in snow and ice.  Thankfully, we have snow tires coming next week, so that should help with the daily commute to school. 

On Sunday, Jason, Jenna and Ethan constructed this enormous "snow couple"! 

Only two more days of school before Christmas break.  The kids are nearly counting down the hours until Saturday.  We are excited for our first European Christmas.