Being new to this whole snow thing, is there anything I need to do to prepare?
Judging by what seems to happen at the grocery store every time there is a major snow event, you need to prepare to make
HUGE amount of French Toast by buying up
all the milk, eggs and bread available.
Seriously, though, it's pretty much common sense. For me, I make sure I have food, and also some bottled water on-hand if we're worried about really cold temps (around here, water main breaks are more common in the really cold weather, so I like to have a gallon of bottle water per-person around just in case), and that we have a movie or two to entertain the kids if we're stuck inside, and we just settle in.
The only thing we are careful about is to check the furnace, dryer and hot water heater vents occasionally to make sure they don't ice up or get covered by drifting snow if we're getting lots of snow. This isn't usually a problem when you get a little snow, but when we get more than a foot or two all at once, I find it's worth checking, especially if it's windy and the snow is drifting. Oh, and if it's going to be super-cold, we always make sure the cars are full of gas.
Good luck with Snowmageddon! We're only expecting to get 8-16, so it should be no biggie here, although the timing may make it a problem for schools and such. I'd give it a 50:50 chance that we have school/work tomorrow (watch, the way it will work out is that schools will be closed but work will be open

).