The last significant snowfall I recall was New Year's Day, 2001. I remember it well because I was at church on New Year's Eve when the snow started, and it had accumulated quite a bit by the time service was over. Thankfully, I kept a can of de-icer in my trunk at all times, and I even loaned it to someone who didn't have an ice scraper. I crept my way home, unable to see the lines in the street. Despite a traffic jam due to an accident or something, I managed to get home within an hour.
I have a picture somewhere of my older sister's kids playing in the snow. I think that my nephew was nine and my niece was three at the time. My younger sister's daughter wasn't born yet, so she had never seen snow before.
When I heard the forecast about possible snow flurries, I didn't expect to see anything. Of course my mother, being the Mother Hen she is, made it her business to head to the grocery store just in case we got so much snow that we would have to dig our way out, kind of like that Christmas episode of Little House on the Prairie.
Well, my older sister's kids spend the night at our house Friday, and when I woke up that morning, I looked out the window expecting to see rain. Well, to my chagrin, snowflakes were falling like salt being shaken from the gray sky above. I told the kids, and their reactions didn't surprise me. My niece, now nine, proceeded to put on her coat and shoes while still wearing a nightgown, so she was pretty excited. After I told her to put on some pants, I asked my fifteen-year-old nephew if he was going outside, too. With teen angst, he declined the offer and returned to bed, Nintendo DS in hand.
I went outside with my niece to get a closer look and take some pictures. There wasn't much accumulation to speak of, so most of my shots only show touches of white. I tried to photograph the snowflakes, but they were too fast for me. They came out looking like white chicken scratches, so I guess my shutter speed isn't good enough for that sort of thing.
Determined to play in the snow, my niece went to the only place in the yard that had a decent accumulation: my car.
She made a few snowballs and threw them (one at me - ouch), and she also made a snowman that was about the size of a Smurf.
She also caught snowflakes on her tongue. I did too, but not on purpose. Her final masterpiece: a smiley face on my car window.
We went inside since I was about to freeze to death, and we had hot cocoa and gingerbread cookies. I also called my younger sister to see if she let the six-year-old play in the snow. She let her look out the window, but that was it since she didn't get any accumulation. Her son is six weeks old, so I know he won't remember the snow at all.
There's always next time...
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