POULSBO — A cold spell and barrage of snow gave many in Little Norway an unexpected day off this week as Old Man Winter showed that he still has a few tricks up his sleeve.

Snow began to fall across the Puget Sound before light Jan. 6 and fell throughout the day. In Little Norway, an estimated 5 inches were on the ground by the end of the day.

Most folks chose to stay home and many of those who did brave the elements were sent home early. At Poulsbo City Hall, Police Chief Jeff Doran recommended workers be sent home well before 10 a.m. to provide for their safety. The closure cancelled passport service for the week, but other than that, just gave staff a day to enjoy the white stuff.

“I just stayed home and stayed warm,” City Clerk Karol Jones joked about her experience Tuesday.

City Hall reopened Wednesday.

Rain began to fall early Jan. 7 but there was still a lot of digging out to do well into the late afternoon Wednesday. Snow remained on the ground into the end of the week.

Poulsbo Assistant Public Works Superintendent Dan Wilson said Wednesday that his crews were frantically trying to stay on top of the snow and calls for plow and sand services coming in from across the city.

“(Public Works crews) were here until pretty late last night trying to get on top of it but we had to wait for the temperatures to go up again and then things starting going our way,” Wilson commented.

City crews that usually pick up garbage 365 days a year even had to give up their stellar record to pitch in. They were working double time Wednesday to make up for the lost day.

“It’s just not business as usual,” Wilson explained. “Everything we’d usually do has just been going around snow and getting the plows and the sand out. But by the end of the week, we should be back to normal operation.”

In the downtown Poulsbo shopping district, only a couple of merchants made it in to open up shop Tuesday including Sluys’ Bakery, Portside Pub, Checker’s Espresso and Caron’s Gifts.

Caron’s co-owner Pat Guilfoyle, who drove in from Manchester that morning, had one word to describe the day.

“Dead,” he commented. “We actually got a lot of stuff done like inventory and taking down our Christmas tree but we had zero sales.”

In fact, downtown Poulsbo resembled more of a snow park Tuesday than a shopping and civic area — boasting its share of cross country skiers and snowy-day hikers.