Snow Day

Today there was no school. I found this out at 5:38 AM when my friend, Sharon, the class mom, called me to tell me. I would take some time to delve into the irony of waking people up at 5:38 AM to tell them that they can sleep in because their kids have no school, but I think I just did. So, from 5:38 until 7:00, when Eliana finally woke up, I laid awake in bed thinking about how I would handle the day. I am just starting to recover from a week of illness which began to subside overnight after I started my z-pack (zithromax...awesome stuff!). In recent years for some reason, we have been getting this fine powder-type snow that is useless for anything other than inconveniently covering the ground and causing traffic problems. I always think about what it would be like to make a snowman, but never seem to have the opportunity.
This morning I called my friend/neighbor, Lisa, to ask what time the kids would be meeting outside to play in the snow. She told me that she was planning an expedition to a local sledding hotspot. We agreed to go at 1:00. Ethan could not contain himself, and in a "Rain Man"-like fashion, repeatedly demanded to know when we would be leaving for sledding. He cried over and over how unfair I was being because I wasn't taking him outside at that very instant to play in the snow. I offered to help him into his boots and snow clothes so that he could go out in the freezing cold and play by himself. He wanted my company and I was unwilling and unable to indulge him.
Shortly before 1, Lisa called to tell me that the snow I had been watching fall outside all morning had turned to freezing rain and she thought that sledding would be a bad idea. She said that maybe the kids could just go outside and play in the snow for a bit. Ethan jumped around the house screaming like Ed McMahon had just handed him a larger than life check for $20 million. He had just hit the kid lottery...he was about to head out into the first true snowfall of the year to play. His excitement was palpable.
I bundled up the kids and myself and we headed out. Alan was just arriving home at that very moment. We all went outside. Alan and the kids started shoveling the driveway while I ran back inside for my camera. There are some who ask the question, "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" My eternal question, it seems, is, "If our family has an experience and no one has taken a photograph with which to scrapbook the moment, did it really happen?" And so I followed the kids outside to take pictures of their adventures in the snow.
Alan went inside to check his work e-mail and the kids and I tried to shovel the driveway. That is when I made a glorious discovery! I realized that the snow was heavy and wet. "Packy" is the term we use for snow like that. It was perfect snow for snowballs, forts and SNOWMEN!! I ran to the lawn and shouted, "Let's make a snowman!" Ethan, being 6 and never having had the opportunity had no idea what to do. His eyes grew wide as I rolled a tiny snowball across the lawn and he watched it grow into a 4-foot wide ball which became the bottom of our snowman. He was amazed by the process. Soon, Sam and Abbey arrived from next door. The project took on new life as the kids dug for "itchy balls" from which to craft a mouth for our snowman, and I ran to the garage to dig out an old, unused bag of charcoal for eyes and buttons. I ran inside and grabbed a hat and a scarf while Lisa and the kids sought out branches for his arms. In no time we had a nice-looking snowman that the kids were proud of. They all stood beside him for a group picture. It was a precious moment frozen (no pun intended) in time. Years from now, Ethan will look back at these pictures and remember his first snowman. Eliana will probably not remember the day, but she'll think the pictures are cool.
The best part is that at one point I stopped being a mommy and a grown up and truly recaptured the spirit of the little girl I used to be. Instead of being grumpy about having to shovel the driveway, or worried about the condition of the roads, I was just delighted by the simple joy of a snowy day, like I used to be when I was a kid. It was fun.