Weekend assignment #42 (and 44)

  John Scalzi, newly published science fiction novelist, AOL blogger extraordinaire, and weekend assignment, um, assigner, gives us Weekend Assignment #42: Share your favorite story of Winter cold -- preferably (but not necessarily) involving something freezing inconveniently and humorously.

Extra credit: Name a song that reminds you of winter that's not Christmas-themed.

  Now, if you have been keeping track, you will know I have not completed assignments #39 through #41. I would like to say that the holiday season kept me too busy, but the truth is, I have gone through a period of reduced creativity recently. Connected to the holidays? No idea. Hopefully, I'm back. And here is my winter story:

  It was early February.  Must have been the first week of the month. My fiancee (now my wife) informed me that we were having dinner at my parents' house that Saturday evening. "Fine with me," I said.
  Early Saturday the snow started falling. As the day leaned into early afternoon, and the snow continued to pile up, my wife (then fiancee) became increasingly agitated. When the streetlights started coming on at about 4:00pm she almost started moaning in desperation, but she would not tell me what was wrong.
  The snow had reached the axles of the cars trying to plow their way down the street. The phone had rung, with whispered, secretive conversations ensuing, several times. Finally, Pat (she of the wife/fiancee nomenclature) came to me, head hung down and apologised.
  I remember being confused. I had no idea what she was apologising for. Just then the doorbell rang. My good friend Hans was at the door with a brightly wrapped package in his arm. "Happy Birthday," he sang out in his ebullient manner. Crowding in through the door behind Hans was another friend, Graham, and his fiancee, Christina. I believe at that moment you could have driven a rather large truck into the mouth of my wife, or either of my parents. After they had ratcheted their jaws back up off the floor, my wife explained to me that she had planned a surprise birthday party for methat day, but the snowstorm had thrown a great, freezing wrench into her plans. She did not expect anyone to show up.
  In the end, almost half of the invited guests managed to come, despite the weather. What my wife envisioned as a huge disaster turned out to be an OK party. We are still not sure how any of them actually managed to get there.

  Extra credit: Niagara Falls band Honeymoon Suite's first single, 1983s New Girl Now, started with the line, "hot summer night, storm clouds fill the air." Greater Toronto Area residents who listened to Q107 radio at the time might remember that Honeymoon Suite got their start by winning the annual 'Homegrown' band contest hosted by the station. The song New Girl Now, as originally submitted to the contest, began, "cold winter's night, storm clouds fill the air." When the band's first album came out, the studio had them change the line to coincide with the time of year it was being released. Not sure why, but when John asked for a song that reminds me of winter, that's the first thing that popped into my head.