Let it snow...

With the onset of cooler weather in our part of the country I have been reminded that nothing is as exciting to kids as a snow day from school. I remember begging God in the wee hours of the morning to please let there be enough snow on the ground for the Superintendent to call school. The disappointment was never so raw as when Mom would explain that the dude who made the decision was from Ohio and there would rarely ever be a day he deemed bad enough to call off school on account of snow.

There were, however, a few days I remember in my life where the snow did come and with a fervor not seen in many years since! How is it that when we recall our youth things always seem bigger and more dramatic? I distinctly remember so much snow! I remember stepping out the back door and being knee deep and sometimes hip deep in the white stuff. Never mind that I was distinctly shorter than most of my compatriots... Yeah, we will conveniently leave that part out. I just remember the days we got to spend alternating reading by the wood burning stove and donning our outdoor gear to trudge out into the white frigid day.

We built snow men, we had snowball fights, we dug into all that heavy wet stuff and made forts. It was so much fun to be a kid back in that day. We would come in when our clothes got so wet it became unbearable. We would undress in front of the wood burning stove and lay out our mittens, socks and coats to dry by the roar of the fire. Hours later, after cocoa and a snack and maybe some reading we would don our dry drier gear and head right back out to finish some project we had started earlier. It was pure heaven!

These days my kids long for snow days not so much for the outdoor activities and the playing in the white stuff. They yearn for a few more hours sleep and more time in front of the "boxes" - Computer, television, etc. I get it - Things have changed. But I still remember having such an incredible time out there in the back yard, or the front yard...Heck just being out in it!  There's still a part of me that laughs and dances an invisible jig when the snow starts to fly... "Snow Day!!!"