snow day

sunrise:  7:06

No sun today - but this kind of landscape has a beauty all its own...

 

A very happy daughter is sleeping in this morning, instead of taking midterms.  Snow days still give me that little thrill inside, which was sometimes frustrating as a kid.  I was so excited to have a snow day that I couldn't get back to sleep. 

When my siblings and I were young it seems we spent entire days outside in the snow.  Building forts under trees and in the mounds left by plowing next to the driveway.  We used to love to create the most original sledding runs.  If they went through some kind of tunnel, had banked curves, or sent you airborne, that was the best.  It was also nice that you didn't feel all those scrapes and bruises until you got indoors to thaw out.

One of the best parts of having children has been the opportunity to relive parts of being a kid, like having snow days.  Of course, you have to relive the bad parts too -- peeing in snowsuits after a fruitless struggle with straps and buckles, frozen mittens that keep coming untucked from your sleeves,  snow down the boots, snowballs in the face thrown by your brother. But those recollections are helpful too when I get overly nostalgic for the old days when the kids were little.  Phew!  Thank goodness THAT'S over!   Memory is very useful when used selectively.

The dogs were full of frolic today.  Snow days never get old for them -- and no snowsuits!