On Wednesday morning we woke to the news that most of the schools in the area were closed due to weather. As we went to the windows in surprise, we saw that Tuesday night we'd had a sneak attack of snowfall. Only rain had been predicted, but temperatures dropped so we ended up with several inches of snow instead...and it was still falling that morning. Needless to say, the children were
all excited and thrilled (age is no determination of excitement and thrillation when it comes to a snow day!) We spent the day relaxing with a big breakfast, enjoying time with house guests who were visiting, and watching the kids have a great time outside. Craig took Josiah and Johngideon to sled on a nearby hill dubbed "Suicide Hill" with neighbor friends Emmett and Liam.
While they were there, their little sister Mara hung out with Montgomery.
The two girls spent a long time outside, surprisingly right after each of them had eaten big bowls of fresh snow! My insides would have been way too cold at that point...aaahhh, youth! They "made" trees and snowangels.
When it was time to come in, the two of them delightedly brought in two more big bowls of snow...
grass- flavored this time. ;o)
That evening, as everyone was warming up drinking hot cocoa, we watched the next wave of snowfall hit our area...the one that had actually been predicted. It was beautiful because this was the heavy kind of snow that falls something like 2-3 inches per hour. Auntie Joanne ended up spending the night after she'd stopped by for dinner, because the snowfall came so fast and furious that driving conditions deteriorated unexpectedly rapidly and it was not safe for her to make the drive home. (We heard on the news the next morning that so many people got stranded on the highways heading out of town after work; many people spent the night in their cars and others just left their cars and walked to public places for the night; city hotels were sold out with some folks actually spending the night in lobbies too.)
Maia had a flight out early Thursday morning for a dance conference and she and I spend the evening -- no, actually all night :o) -- twisting her fro into the most beautiful individual twists...
and checking the airline website to see if her flight was delayed or cancelled. Surprisingly, even with the 10 inches of snow we got that evening, her flight was scheduled to leave on time. There are no hair photos to post here because, needless to say, the wee hours of Thursday morning were spent in a flurry of finishing packing (not fun when you're on crutches!), and for Craig and Job, getting the walks and street and cars shoveled out enough to make the drive to the airport (thank God for the menfolk!). She and the other delighted travelers are now in sunny California enjoying 80 degree weather!
While I am not a personal fan of snow, having grown up in Charleston, SC, where I doubt our city government even owned a snow plow, I do have a high appreciation for the beauty of seeing the world covered in a blanket of sparkling white. Thursday morning's trees from our back window were delightfully lovely and standing there soaking up all that beauty really fed my soul.
Thank you, God.
His artistry has no equal.
Later that day, I did the previously unthinkable and joined my crew for an hour or so of sledding on another nearby hill (not so "suicidal") that was better sized for Montgomery to enjoy the experience as well. When I say I joined them for sledding, that actually means I watched them sled from my picturing-taking post in front of the big tree at the foot of the hill (the one another mother leaving when we arrived warned me could make for a rough finish to a really fast not-so-well-controlled sled run). (I later dubbed this the hill's "pee tree" due to all the areas of suspicious looking yellow snow behind it!)
It was Gommy's first real sledding experience...
...turns out she LOVES sledding!
...she even enjoyed the wipe-outs!...
...and she and Johngideon, Josiah and Job just had a great time.
A little ramplet had been built midway down one run, so Craig beefed it up a bit and it provided a fun moment of airborne action on the way down the hill.
It was fun, until a landing took out one of our disks!
This was perfect snowball and snowman snow, heavy, thick and wet...so we couldn't resist a bit of snowball fighting. Job is clearly the most skilled at this endeavor, so we ended up needing to have our team division be something like everyone else against Job!
No photos of the real fight because I was in the fray too! It was fun, but we sure missed our Maia.
Johngideon spent some time creating a new run down the hill just for fun. Gommy spent some time just lying in the snow saying "I'm tired," and so finally we all headed back to the van, cold and dripping wet, exhausted and exhilarated. We grabbed a couple of movies on the way home, and while I peeled off and hung all of our wet layers to dry, Job and Josie walked to our neighborhood restaurants to grab pizzas and Josiah's favorite: a meatball marinara sub. I called Johngideon in (can you believe he spent another half hour playing outside with neighbor friends after we got home from the hill!) and we all sat cozy under blankets in the den, devouring pizza and watching
Despicable Me for the first time. Great movie, by the way...and a lot more reasonably priced at Redbox family pricing than family pricing at the theatres! :o)
What a great day! This southern gal is actually
grateful for interestedly accepting of our cold, snowy winters.
Thought I'd end the post with a bit of Job's tree art...this one is called
"We're going sledding but I'm waiting for my southern-raised 'snover-cautious' mother to finish bundling up my younger siblings and that takes WAY too long!"
Take Care. Much Love.
