Snow Snow Snow

There is a lot of snow on the ground, and it is still snowing. The upside, M is not (I assume since he is still sleeping) driving up to Boston today. The downside, although I have not yet received the official phone call, the children will not be vacating the house for their respective morning activities.

I remember when snow days were a thing to be celebrated. In grade school no school meant we got to stay in our jammies all day and watch TV, read, play games, or help mom bake bread. Even in college when it snowed all the time and they never ever cancelled school, snow was a happy thing, a reason to haul out the rattiest clothes, bring cocca into class and tromp around hurling snow balls at friends across the quad. I would often sit upstairs in the student center where there were comfortable couches and a fireplace (!) and watch the snow drift down past the Hall of Languages. It was beautiful.

This morning I woke up and watched the snow drift onto the hot pink plastic slide, the peaceful feeling was not quite the same. In a few minutes the kids would be up, and a day of refereeing sibling battles while trying to keep the chaos at bay and simultaneously maintaining a semblance of quiet while M tried to telecommute to work would begin. The snow would need to be shoveled, the cars would need to be scraped, and the cats would need to be rescued after they foolishly insisted on adventuring out into the drifts.

In a few years, I am sure that the joy of a snow day will return. The kids will be older, and I will relish the time spent with them engaged in our own snow day rituals. But for today, I will try to find the peace during nap time. Perhaps by then the hot pink slide will be a lovely white sculpture.