Sunday was clear — sunny, with a blue sky and the cool air typical of a Southern winter. The storm was coming, though, and everyone knew it.

Officials canceled school Sunday night, around 9:45, before a single flake fell. Local news outlets carried stories of empty store shelves as residents bought milk, bread, coats, boots, shovels — the signs of a population generally unprepared for such snow.

We woke to white, something so rare here that it makes us simply awestruck.

We’d grown used to seeing one snowfall a year, usually with two inches accumulation maximum, disappearing by the afternoon. To wake up to four inches, with more falling — almost unheard of in the South.

Everything stops — no one’s going anywhere, and so unexpectedly, we have a family day.

Morning in the snow, maybe a movie in the afternoon, more snow before the sun sets — a perfect day.