Feature: Cold weather puts families together with closure of schools, offices

HOUSTON, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) -- Two days of sub-freezing weather has sent Houston, Texas into a tailspin, as schools and offices were closed. During the two days, parents found different things to do with their children.

City of Houston officials shut down schools and businesses for two straight days as temperatures plummeted to minus four degrees Celsius on Wednesday, marking the lowest temperature since January 8, 1996.

Natalie Blumberg, a mother of two and an employee of a trucking company, found herself at home since Tuesday, because the Port of Houston was closed due to the cold. The icy roads between her house and her office made her daily life more difficult.

Her children, the 11-year-old Xander and the nine-year-old Stasia, have mixed feelings of "glad and sad" about the weather.

"I like the cold weather, but it is not really fun. We have to stay inside and can't play outside. We do get to play games and be with our family, who is not normally home during the week," Stasia said.

Her father, Andrew Blumberg, had to go to work for shorter hours on Wednesday. "Our Dad gets to come home early today, and we are really happy about that," Stasia said.

The boy, Xander, has loftier ideas.

"The cold weather is boring right now. Mom is keeping us inside, but if we can go outside it would be fun. We could slide on the ice. At least we are not having to do school work," Xander said.

"The kids have cabin fever - high stress and high energy," Blumburg told Xinhua. "It is too cold to go outside so we are trying to find things to do, while keeping screen time to a minimum. They will do some chores that they do not typically during the week."

The arctic air mass blowing through Houston earlier this week brought freezing rain, sleet and frigid temperatures to the city, causing the mercury to dip to a 22-year low on Wednesday.

Dr. Le Vo, an internal medicine physician, and her husband Dr. Geetinder Goyal, a pulmonologist, were both at home with their two girls, Saya, almost 2, and Avni, 5, on Tuesday. The family spent time together, reading, watching television and playing games.

But Dr. Vo returned to office on Wednesday. While Dr. Goyal canceled appointments on Wednesday morning, and was spending the late morning catching up on telephone calls and other matters.

Despite the temperature at the two-decade lowest level and wind chill across much of the area, Wednesday's frigid conditions were not the coldest on record for January 17.

The coldest January 17 in Houston was recorded in 1930, when the temperature dipped to minus nine Celsius, according to the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS).

The NWS downgraded the winter storm warning issued for Houston to a winter storm advisory late Wednesday. Houston-area schools and businesses are expected to reopen on Thursday. Enditem