Snow Days

Every summer at the height of the heat I go to our (rather ghetto) local thrift store, Megathrift, and buy my kids each a pair of snow pants for 99 cents. And then we wait about six months, and sometime in the middle of December I start despairing that it will never snow. And then one day in January or February, just as I'm about to give up, it happens! Snow!

Our first snow day this winter was in January (above) and it was pretty much just a dusting. Gracie had to be really careful making her first snow angel because there was quite a bit of driveway underneath:

But we got just enough to shut down the schools and give us a smooth-ish sled run on the back hill, so before Steve went in for conference that morning, we took the kids out on the little saucer Aunt Jessica brought to Gracie the winter Charlie was born.

Sledding is, as you probably know, just THE MOST fun. Even when there's hardly any snow and your bottom is getting bumped all over the place as you jitter down the hill. (We are lucky to have an excellent sledding hill in our back yard!)

Charlie was a fan of sledding but not of the snow (you see Steve carrying him--and yes, those ARE pink snow pants; I failed to buy him snow pants this year because I was preggers this summer, so he used Gracie's 3T hand-me-downs. Luckily he is a manly man and did not care at all.). Anyway he liked it when there was just a LITTLE bit of snow (see below) but even in the barely-inches amount we had the next day, he got cold pretty quickly and asked to go inside where he and his dump trucks watched the action from the sliding glass door.

I don't have snow pants (fail) so I wimped out not long after, and got the fireplace and hot cocoa ready for when the brave snow-panted ones (Gracie and Steve) came in.

So we had our snow day and I was satisfied and had almost put the snow pants away for the season AND THEN! Pax came!

Let me tell you, the South got real intense real quick (right quick!) when the news of a legitimate snowstorm arrived. People were instagramming photos of grocery stores with the milk ALL gone, bread cleared from the shelves, the bacon section pathetic and empty... But I had been shopping the day before, so we were all set and cozy at home. I did send Steve out for flashlight batteries, and I did all the laundry, charged all our electronic devices, and filled the tub with water just in case our power actually went out or the pipes froze or something. But I was actually pretty excited about the snow and we were all very relaxed. Steve came home after it started and it came down fast! We had a great time watching it fall, but we were a little bummed that NBC was airing continuous footage of the snow (which we could see out our window) instead of the Olympics. Boo. :(

The next morning we bundled everyone up (except Juliette who stayed inside and napped) and headed out. The moment Charlie set foot in the snow (which was DEEP) he burst into tears. So he went back inside while the rest of us built a big, beautiful snowman.

I had to scrounge around for something to make his face. He had a carrot nose per tradition, but his eyes were grapes and his mouth was penne pasta. When I went up the back hill to find him some arms, I was amazed at how deep the snow was! (So amazed that I took a picture for you!)

I broke off some dead branches and brought them back to my girl for her snowman (whom she named "Snow"--then she carved his name into his stomach. Hmm.)

This girl could be in the snow all day. She's a snow baby.

When my red corduroys failed me and I got too cold, I hunkered down inside with Charlie and Juliette while Steve and Gracie took a borrowed inflatable sled out back to enjoy a REAL snow on our hill.

I did a couple sled runs before I went in for good. :) Then Steve just sat in the snow sending Gracie down the hill over and over (occasionally taking a turn), and she informed him that she wants to learn to snowboard next winter so she can be in the Olympics. They were out there for at least another hour.

When they came in we hand lunch and quiet time, and then everybody (grown ups, too) ate dinner, got in their PJs, and snuggled up on the floor with a ton of pillows and blankets to watch Hugo by the fire, warm and cozy and snug as bugs.