Snow Day

Christmas came and went so quickly this year.  And it didn't feel as Christmas-y as I had hoped.  As much as we don't over-plan our lives, we had very few free nights to hang out in the evening with our tree, a fire, and (after Abigail's bedtime, a glass of wine for Larry and me).  Out of the 22 nights before my parents arrived, Abigail had us busy on 4 nights and Larry was busy on 10 nights.  (Why can't chorus performers give a WINTER concert instead of a CHRISTMAS concert in an already over-packed, over-done month?  20 hours in the week before Christmas went into Larry's choral performance.  That is too much.) 

The absence of my mother-in-law was felt by me this year.  I enjoyed having her visit us last December.  She was a constant, calm, Christmas-y presence in front of a fire every evening for the latter half of the month, but she was unable to make the trip from Florida this year.  We were lucky enough, though, to have my parents for most of the entire week of Christmas.  They took Abigail out to breakfast on Christmas Eve and they entertained her for every waking minute of every day.  

(In retrospect, I have no idea how we could have survived Christmas break without their presence and help!)

After 12 days off, Abigail was ready to go back to school yesterday. She had a blast.  
Then the snow started.  But it was  beautiful snow.  Big, fat, wet, gentle, beautiful snowflakes began falling right after Abigail put on her pajamas.  She ran to the back door.  She ran to the front door.  She excitedly declared "It is snowing in all directions!!!!  It must be snowing at everyone's house!!!!  Can I call Grandma Judy and Yinski and tell them about this snow and see if they have it?!?!?!"  After an excited conversation, she hung up.  It was already past her bedtime, but the snow had covered the grass and, given the forecast of temps in the single digits for today, I knew that this would be her only chance to play in "packing snow."  So I put her coat over her pjs, slipped on boots, and we had a snowball fight.  We fought the back fence (a target she could hit with her mittens on).  

Today was a snow day, with with wind-chill in the negatives and the stickiness gone from the snow, we only went sled-riding, and not for very long.  But Abigail still LOVED it.