Friday afternoon, my mom and I were sitting by a window in the McDonald's Play Land, eating fattening (and not all that good) food, watching Shaelyn run around with a new little "friend" in the play area, and watching our clocks (and the skies) as we timed our McDonald's departure to make sure she made it to the airport in time for her flight. And worried that she might not leave at all, with the impending bad weather.
Suddenly, as we sat there watching, they sky was dotted with tiny, tiny, tiny flecks of white. After a few minutes, the tiny flecks became a bit bigger, and moved a bit faster. Soon, it was noticeable enough that the children stopped momentarily from their screaming, manic playing and ran to the windows to watch the snow come down.
"It's snowing!" Shaelyn exclaimed with delight. As she turned to look at me, her eyes all lit up with excitement and wonder, I felt like a kid again myself.
I sighed.
"You love this, don't you?" asked my mom.
"Of course!" I replied. "It's just so beautiful. It's just so magical. And I feel like it's Christmas, right here, right now."
"All I see is more traffic, car accidents, and inconvenience."
"Well, that may be true," I agreed, "but it's not very romantic."
"It is beautiful," she consented.
I wanted to rush home and let the girls play in the snow immediately. But wait. . . Rachelle's just a baby. And won't she hate the snow, the cold, being bundled? Shaelyn always did. And what will she wear that will keep her warm and dry? What will Shaelyn wear? Why don't we ever have any snow clothes?!?!
Oh yeah. Because it only ever snows like once or twice a year.
Still, Shaelyn was in the back seat begging me to be able to go play in the snow. And I found my car veering off on a different route from the airport. To stop and buy boots. And snow pants. And anything else I could get my hands on last minute. After 3 stores (and one tired and hungry baby, and one bored and antsy preschooler), all I found were some sparkly boots Shaelyn wasn't too fond of.
We came home, got Rachelle down for a nap, and bundled Shaelyn up. Michael came home from work early, and we enjoyed playing in the fresh (although WET) snow.
The next morning we woke up to 4" of ice. I can't in good conscience call it snow. Shaelyn wanted to play in it immediately. I wanted to eat some oatmeal and wake up a little. And Michael wanted nothing to do with it.
"It's frozen solid. I won't be fun to play in. The girls will just get cold and wet." I finally caved to his argument and convinced Shaelyn that playing outside wouldn't be fun.
L-A-M-E, like I said.
Then I sat down at the computer and saw my friends' posts of their snow adventures. Kids smiling. Rosy cheeks. Runny noses. All kinds of fun.
"We are L-A-M-E!" I thought. Here it is, the first time Rachelle's old enough to play in the snow, the only time it might snow all year, and we're keeping our kids indoors.
I bundled them up in every layer I could possibly think of and took them out.
They enjoyed every minute of it. Even Rachelle. Although because I layered her so much, she could hardly move. She was wearing boots a size too big, a coat a size too big, gloves 2 sizes too big, and a big grin.
We even took our lame, homemade sled outside to pull the girls around in the snow (I mean ICE).
Thank you, fellow bloggers, for saving my children from their lame parents. They wouldn't have had the fun afternoon they ended up having without you!
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