When Laura and Joe Shinn moved from Lititz to New England in September, they had no idea just how brutal the winter that awaited them would be. Last week, close to three feet of snow fell on Dover, their new hometown on the southeastern coast of New Hampshire.

“You think of New England, and you think of a lot of snow,” Laura Shinn said Monday night during a telephone interview with LititzDailyNews.com as even more snow fell over the state. Last week’s storm dropped so much snow that it even took natives by surprise.

“They were saying ‘we’ve never seen anything like this,’” she said. “It snowed for a good 27 hours.” After the storm ended, Laura, who grew up on a lake, took her daughter to visit the local marina.

There she captured images of seaside boulders covered in ice and sailboats surrounded by snow at the Portsmouth Marina. On another outing to break up the monotony of being home bound, the duo trudged a mile in the snow to the local Dunkin’ Donuts.

But today, with temperatures in the single digits and winds whipping, the Shinns and daughter Sarah Kathryn stayed home. School was once again cancelled in the New Hampshire town that reminds Laura of Lititz, where the family lived for seven years. With winds gusting up to 30 mph, it felt like -9 degrees tonight as she answered questions about the New England winter.

“You have to have every inch of your body covered,” said Laura, a native of North Carolina. “It burns your face.” Another foot of snow fell outside her home today.

“The snow is blowing sideways, it twirls around,” she said, as she gazed out at a street light that she described as casting a pink glow on the powdery snow. “I feel like I’m in a dadgum snow globe.”

She tried to recall the last day her daughter had school as one snow day has blurred into another, thanks to two blizzards in jjust over a week.

“I think it was Friday,” she said.

For Sarah Kathryn, who attended John Beck, the winter weather has been a bit of an adventure.

“She came home from school and said, ‘Mommy, I got to sled at second recess today,’” said Laura. Her daughter’s school has a supply of sleds of all shapes and sizes, donated by parents.

They even get to have snowball fights and play in the snow surrounding the school. And the fluffy white stuff has even found its way into the school’s curriculum.

“In gym, they’ll learn how to snowshoe,” said Laura.

Until school starts again, Laura is challenged to keep her daughter busy with indoor activities. She’s running low on ideas as snow days pile up, and has turned to friends on Facebook for fresh inspiration.

One thing is for sure: they’re not watching the movie Frozen.

“I hid that,” she said.

A trip to the Children’s Museum in Dover on Saturday gave the family some respite from the cabin fever. Sarah Kathryn clowned around with the green screen, and created her own shark choreography before Katy Perry performed at the Super Bowl.

What was it like to be in New England for the Patriots win?

“The Patriots and the Bruins are a religion up here,” she said.

You can see more of Laura’s photos in our “Photo Gallery: Blizzard 2015″ on this site by clicking here.

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RebuckRecordCropHeadshotLynn Rebuck covers weather and community for LititzDailyNews.com. She welcomes your emails at [email protected].