It snowed here today, but too late in the morning for school to be called off. So, although the kids' bus never showed up, and they didn't get to school until 10:00a.m, it wasn't a snow day. I was disappointed about that because it was a perfect day to play in the snow. We got quite a few inches of wet, fluffy snow, just right for snowman making, and the temperature hovered just around freezing most of the day so it wasn't too cold to stay outside. Fortunately there was still plenty of snow when they got home from school and they spent a couple of hours outside playing.
My kids usually make at least one snowman every year, despite the fact we don't often have snow on the ground for long. I was thinking about that today because, although I had plenty of snow in my childhood winters, I don't remember making snowmen. I remember trying, but snowman snow must have been pretty rare. Not to mention the fact that it was so cold outside...
I've tried to describe winters in Canada to my children, but my powers of description must be lacking because they definitely have a romantic view about it. I've tried to explain air so cold it freezes the inside of your nose when you breathe and how even if it did snow you still had to go to school, but all they say is how lucky I was to have snow on the ground all winter long. Lucky? Maybe they misunderstand the definition of that word because I felt a lot of things about winter while I was growing up and not one of those feelings was "lucky."
And if you're wondering where Ryan was while the other kids were building their snowman, he was experimenting with bike riding in the snow. His verdict? It doesn't work, but his bike has awesome brakes. He also told me while he was riding his bike on the slick hill by our house a teenage boy came by driving too fast in a truck. Ryan said he had to get out of the way to avoid getting hit, but his excited thought during this near death experience was "One day soon that can be me driving dangerously down a hill in a snowstorm!" Heaven help me.
4 comments:
I can't say I ever felt "lucky" about having to go out and about it -40 degree weather. Thankful for heat, but not lucky.
I can see Ryan having a lot of fun driving dangerously in a snowstorm, while scaring all of his younger siblings who are also in the car with him. Good luck with that.
I think back to my wintery childhood and just wonder "who in their right mind would live in such a cold place?" Back then I would not of been able to imagine a normal January day without cold and snow. Funny how my kids are going to grow up with opposite memories.
If I remember correctly the day it snowed I had a minus 40 windchill. I think I may be one of the "dumber" Nelson siblings as I still live here.
I dream of living somewhere with snow days. Or where it's "summer" all year and we have to vacation where there's snow. Glad you could break the cycle of living in the cold. I'm still working on it. And it's true- the snow here isn't good snowmen snow until March or April, so not many snowmen get built.
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