It was just two years ago - back in 1998. On Christmas Eve in Atlantic City, work crews were out before dawn clearing off the walks. The plows hit the boardwalk by noon and folks went for a stroll in nearly five inches of snow. People often confuse sleet with hail. Both are pieces of ice but there are major differences between the two.
Sleet occurs in the winter.
Snow falls through a warm layer of air, melts into raindrops, but then passes through a colder layer near the ground, and refreezes into ice pellets. Hail, on the other hand, is a warm weather phenomenon. Raindrops get caught within the strong updrafts of a thunderstorm, and they freeze into ice pellets. Once those pellets are too heavy to remain in the air, they fall - as hail. So, it was sleet ticking against your window panes Wednesday night, and not hail.