It's been snowing since early this morning and we have about 2 inches at my house, 3-4 in the big drifts. I could pee my pants I'm so happy, but I don't want to mar the whiteness.
As a child of the Northwest, I am used to one real snow day per year. Every once in awhile we got lucky, like the year I was a junior in high school and we were out for an entire week due to snow and ice. My bestfriendneighbor Liz and I spent the week building a ginormous, fabulous snow fort. We used the recycling bins as molds for bricks. It was glorious. It was exactly the experience we were never granted as children. Honestly, I can't ever remember having more than 2 inches as a child. Sledding was difficult and usually consisted of falling of the sled and skidding down the hill, getting dirty from the slush-snow mix that formed on the concrete. Snow days usually culminated in a big wipe out, after which my mother slapped band aids on Liz and me and gave us hot chocolate. But the snow week of 2004 was epic; we sled without injuring ourselves, we made snow people that didn't melt the next day, our fort held together with real snow and not that powdery shit, we tramped around in dirty boots and wearing several coats. By the end of the week we hadn't showered at all and were totally sick of the snow and the ordeal of putting on layer after layer of protective clothing.
I've had a couple fun snow days in college. It was enjoyable watching friends from Hawaii flip out when they saw snow for the first time our freshman year. Sophomore year we took cafeteria trays and sled down the many campus hills. We had an epic snow ball fight in the quad, we raced around and cracked the ice that grew on the surface of the fountain's pond. Best of all, the roommate and I opened our windows and stuck our heads out to catch snow flakes on our tongues. Then we had peppermint schnaaps in hot chocolate and proceeded to get tipsy to that wonderful holiday classic "Elf".
Last year we had a white Christmas in Portland. Both my parents have lived in Ptown their whole lives and it was their first white Christmas. Liz and I ran around after opening presents and got all soggy. We had disgusting hair and wind chapped faces for the rest of Christmas.
And now, 2008. It's the first day of Christmas Break and I'm at home and every thing is white and magical! I was the first one up and I totally forgot that it was supposed to snow, so when I opened the blinds and all was white as far as the eye could see, I was a little verklempt. No cars had ventured out yet, so the streets were a clean field of white. I put on boots and a coat and ran around outside with the five year olds for a few minutes before coming back inside and drinking hot chocolate and putting on Christmas music so that my parents would wake up and enjoy the snow day with me. Just because it's snowing doesn't mean I become any less passive agressive. La famiglia has been having a very idyllic snow day so far. Rockwell would be proud. We all sat in the family room and read the paper, drank hot chocolate, played with the cat, put out more seed for the little birds and squirrels, and went on a snow walk through the neighborhood. Snow apparently makes the parents and I happy to spend extended amounts of time together.
I plan on spending the rest of the day putting up Christmas decorations and checking how much snow has accumulated every hour on the hour. My dad propped a yardstick up against the house so we could scientifically know the precise amount of snow that has fallen. Snow is the only time that my mother and I show any interest in my father's science experiments, so he is capitalizing on the moment. Coffee cake and hot chocolate are currently being offered to me by my mother, and thus I must run.
Peace beezies, enjoy the snow day if you're so lucky to have it!
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