Snow recap

As Julie mentioned (rather well, I might add!) in her latest post, THE SNOW DAY is an (almost) annual tradition that we Southerners take very seriously.

The steps for a successful snow day

You MUST go out at the first sighting of snow, because chances are it will melt by lunchtime.

You munch handfuls of the amazing white stuff..


You grab whatever "gloves" you can find (your dad's socks can come in handy on these occasions as well)









Seriously... whatever you can find is fair game. Even if you use your sister's headband as a scarf.



And make lots of coffee. Don't forget that.



I know, I know. You folks up north are looking at these pictures and would call this merely "a light dusting." We, however, call this THE BIG SNOW. Everything at this point is cancelled -- school, shows, midweek prayer services, etc. If I had gone to the stores, I'm sure the bread and milk sections would have been pretty darn sparse.


Then, you get together with good friends...



...hit the hills...





Wrap it all up by 11:00 am and call it done! Another successful winter-type-thing has been accomplished, and we move on to spring! (you think I'm kidding, but it's supposed to be 70 degrees on Thursday).

Yesterday marked my 666th post!

And to avoid any "evil eye" on my blog, I better change that number fast! *grin*


I wanted to take this moment to salute all of you up in the northern states -- those of you who deal with snow... and lots of it... on a regular basis.

I'm no stranger to snow. I lived most of my childhood in various northern states, and have fond memories of building igloos and snowmen, having snowball fights, catching snowflakes on my tongue and then, when I was cold and ready to go in, my mom would have hot chocolate for us (and usually a pot of macaroni soup on the stove).

Ah... fond memories.

But those are the memories that a child would have.

What I don't remember is all the wet boots, gloves, and coats piled up in front of the door, nor do I remember how many times they were miraculously taken care of without a second thought from my siblings and me.

Nope. I don't have any mommy memories of snow.

The whole point of this post is that today, for the first time all winter long, we've got snow... and for upstate South Carolina, we have a decent amount of snow. [we've got at least two inches or so out there, and it's still falling down in big, fat flakes].

My kids -- who have nothing but OUR memories [and various Calvin and Hobbes cartoons] to go by, want to have the ENTIRE snowy winter experience all wrapped up in a few hours. They want the joy of bundling up... snowball fights... snow angels... hot chocolate waiting for them... etc etc etc in the space of an hour or two, while I'm dealing with small children crying because their hands and feet are frozen, and slush and wet clothes strewn everywhere. While I'd like to give them some wonderful childhood memories, I'm afraid I'm all "funned out" already.

And this was only one afternoon.

So for all of you (Beth and Suburban Cowgirl for starters!) who have to deal with this for weeks or even months at a time, I salute you!

We have snow!!!

As you recall, my kids were recently forced to eat icicles off of leaves in a rather pitiful attempt to capture that "winter magic"... but no more!

We got snow!!

2.5 inches, actually... which is an amazing amount of snow for where we live. Schools were closed, most people didn't go to work, and life basically came to a halt.

It even made my back yard look kinda pretty...


"Wow! If snow is that infrequent where you live, Ouiz, isn't it hard to dress your children for that sort of weather?"

I'm glad you asked... and yes, it is. This sad, sad photo shows the depths that we must sink to in order to make sure that everyone has SOMETHING warm to put on.


That's embarrassing. We had mis-matched mittens, boys wearing girl's hats, and children borrowing clothes from their siblings to make sure that they stayed warm.


Since this was Marie's first snow, however, I thought I would dedicate most of this post to photos of her.

Here she is trying to figure out what the heck this white stuff is, and if she really wanted to go out in it.


Christopher was determined that he was going to make a REAL snowman, with a carrot for a nose.


Marie was truly impressed.


Reilly wanted to make sure that she gave Marie her very first sledding ride (she's such a good big sister!!)


Daddy got into the act later on (he was one of the few who actually WENT to work today). He wanted to participate in her "first snow" too...


And finally, here's the view from my laundry room window. My friends know this as the "Jesus garden," and I just thought the view was nice with snow all around. PLUS, we'd really like to thank Him again for such a wonderful gift of SNOW!!!