Peek-a-boo, Becca! I see you!
You would think that living in Connecticut, a quintessential New England state that we would have quintessential winters with lots of snow. You would think we were living in an old Currier and Ives post card. But here in Southern, coastal Connecticut such is not true, sadly for the kids. We brace ourselves with each promise of a snowstorm. Sometimes schools are prematurely cancelled as the snow quickly turns into and remains nothing more than a bitter cold rain. Every once in a while we have an ice storm and schools close again but ice storms are not as much fun as snow storms. You can not run and play and sled in them. You cannot make snow angels or snowmen with carrots as noses.
Just before Thanksgiving all the forecasters told us to be prepared; the Big Storm was coming. We ran out and got snow bibs, new hats and mittens and snow boots. We were so excited. It snowed a lot, several inches in fact. But typical to our southern location the snow turned to rain before the kids had a chance to romp in the cold, powdery white stuff and before they could pelt one another with snow balls. The next day the sun came out, the temperatures soared and the itsy bitsy spider crawled back up her water spout. The children were terribly dissapointed.
Thursday night the weathermen promised us that our storm would come. Despite all their fancy shmancy new dopplers I called their fib. I called them all liars, each and every one of them. After all, we had been lied to one too many times. That night the kids went to bed with their pajamas on inside out and backwards, tossed ice cubes out the window and slept with spoons beneath their pillows thinking this would somehow cause the clouds to explode with snow. I let them delight in their supersitions and then sent them off to bed not one minute later than normal because the weathermen are always wrong.
At midnight Alexander beckoned for me from his room as he usually does. We are working hard, so very hard, to stop this. I went in and calmed his fears and sent him back to sleep. In my bed I looked up at the sky through my skylight. It couldn't have been clearer. I knew those damn weathermen would be wrong.
At 5:00 am Alexander was up and eager to play, much to my chagrin. I brought him back in to bed with me in hopes that he would fall back asleep. As we lay snuggled up close next to each other I looked up at the sky. This time I saw nothing. The skylight was completely blanketed! I then looked out the window to see a good couple of inches on the ground already. How peaceful, magical and serene it all looked. How excited I was for the kids, and I do suppose also for myself.
Yesterday I was out with Rebecca while she romped and I took some pictures. Today we all went sledding and had such a great time. Oh what fun it was pretending to be a kid! Alexander insisted I bring home his snowball. It's in the freezer. Tomorrow we are off to build our snowman!