When the weather report said "White Christmas," we're sure people in the Northeast and Midwest didn't expect ice storms and power outages! But that's exactly what's been happening with this crazy rash of winter storms that pummeled the Northeast and Midwest.

According to NBC News, more than 300,000 homes and businesses in Michigan, upstate New York and northern New England remained without electricity Monday morning after thick ice felled trees and brought down power lines, according to utilities companies.

Brad Hoving, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids, Mich. -- the worst-affected state -- said many people may still be using candlelight until Thursday. "It's a big deal," Hoving told the AP. "It's Christmas and we've just had a major ice storm."

And, according to the Raleigh-Durham affiliate of ABC News, the storms have even been proven deadly: a least nine deaths in the U.S. were blamed on the storm, including five people killed in flooding in Kentucky and a woman who died after a tornado with winds of 130 mph struck in Arkansas. Five people were killed in Canada in highway accidents related to the storm.

By late Sunday, nearly 700 flights nationwide had been canceled and about 7,200 were delayed, according to aviation tracking website FlightAware.com. But flights were mostly running on schedule on Monday morning.

And even though New York City enjoyed an unseasonably warm weekend -- temperatures hit the low 70s, at some point, easily breaking records -- residents shouldn't be getting too comfortable: the temperatures are expected to drop back down to the mid-30s by tonight. Temperature records were also set in Wilmington, Del., (67), Atlantic City, N.J., (68), and Philadelphia (67). Washington tied its 1889 mark at 72.

Kevin Roth, lead meteorologist at The Weather Channel, said on Monday the worst of the storm was over, save for "one last gasp" to trouble commuters in the Northeast trying to see their friends and families before Christmas.

"It will be a rough start to the week getting to grandma's house," Roth told NBC News. "For anyone thinking of taking to the roads in the Northeast, based on the forecasts it would be better to leave it until Tuesday, when the weather is set to be a lot quieter."

He also said travel problems on Monday would be caused by a small amount of snowfall in northern Maine, around Caribou, as well as rain moving up from West Virginia to New England through the morning.