Thanksgiving Surprise

We returned home late Thursday night from celebrating Thanksgiving at my parents' home. It was a lovely day filled with good food, crazy cousins, entertainment, Christmas card and logo creating with Photoshop, turtles and snails, flowers from Dad, laughter and a lightning and thunder-filled rainstorm as we walked around the neighborhood. We got a bit wet, but enjoyed the crisp air and the scent of burning logs. Middle daughter suffered a fall, little son basked in the attention of the older cousin he idolizes and oldest daughter ran ahead with the throng of girl cousins lead by the eager canine.

But the day had to come to an end and we reluctantly left for home. We rolled into the neighborhood with two slumbering children and a third on the verge. As we pulled into the driveway the husband stopped the car short of the garage and opened his door, leaned out and scooped up something from the ground. It took a moment for me to register what he was showing me. Hail. We had hail in our front yard. And not just a little bit of hail. It was a lot of hail.

As we got out and surveyed our yard and the neighbors' yards we could see that we missed quite a storm. I have to admit that I was a little bummed out. We rarely have weather in Arizona. We spent a few moments playing and enjoying the little ice pebbles. And then got out the camera to snap a few pics.

And then we scooped up a few bagfuls of the pellets so that the 2 sleeping babes would be able to join in the wonder that fell in our yard while we were away.

Our neighbors told us that around 8:00 p.m. there was a 20 minute hail storm. No joke. Hail for 20 minutes. And it was close to 3 inches deep by the time it finished. Most of it had melted by the time we got home. I would have loved to see it at 3 inches. It seems it was a pretty isolated storm, because in talking to friends, some of them had no hail at their houses- houses only minutes from ours. Strange weather. Still bummed we missed it.