Magical Snow!

Gotta love snowy days. I guess I love them more than anyone and quite possibly because I have never lived where it snows so much you wish it would never snow again.

I live in the High Desert and occasionally it does snow here. We aren't talking stay on the ground for weeks at a time but we do occasionally get a couple days. If we are lucky for those two days it will only snow about 2 inches total and be gone by either the end of day 2 or for sure by day 3.

It is an awesome sight for us since it usually doesn't snow during the day, so it's like a surprise that happens while we sleep. We wake up to a light dusting sometimes enough to make a couple of snow balls. Never an official snow day for sure! It seems like magic to us that it all happened over night.

We did get magically blessed this year however, when on December 17th, we got a foot of snow, literally it began with a mild dusting in the morning, like we usually get. It did not stop! It snowed all day long. My daughter said it was like being inside God's giant snow globe. The one thing I definitely notice when it snows is how mesmerizing it all is. It almost puts you in a trace. I think if someone were to measure your blood pressure it would go way down just watching the falling and swirling snowflakes magically dance on the air until they land, breathlessly into the ground. Ahhh!


By the time we went to sleep it was still snowing. This was completely out of the ordinary for us. We did all the usual stuff you do when it snows for the first time of the year, you make a snowman, you throw snow balls at each other, and you make those lovely snow angels. You also take lots of pictures because you know, no one will believe you when you tell them just how much snow you really got. I never noticed how light it is at night when there is so much snow on the ground. Almost surreal! It's also so quiet. The school even called that morning to issue, wait for it, our first official "SNOW DAY!" Schools were closed!!! Much to the excitement of all our kids, it was almost like saying it's Christmas today, time to open your presents.

When we awoke the next morning, we were pleased to find an additional foot+ of snow on the ground, now making our grand total to more than 2 1/2 feet of snow still on the ground. It was completely out of the ordinary and then the unbelievable happened. Yup you guessed it if you said, the school called and we had our 2nd SNOW DAY!! The only thing different between the days were, the sun was out shining and no snow was falling. Sidewalks were buried, the streets were buried and we had to....Shovel our driveway to get our car out! Yikes! When you live someplace where it doesn't snow, you don't buy things like snow boots or a snow shovel. You have to make do with what you have. Thank goodness we actually had a flat shovel which worked out great. Our neighbors were amazing. Our college students that live across our streets couldn't get their car out no matter how hard they tried to drive over it. Our elderly couple that lived two doors down from them were talking their Christmas pictures in their front yard and immediately went to their aid. They grabbed their two shovels, my husband got into the act with our shovel and our neighbor next door did the same. In five minutes with four people shoveling, they were on their way to school. Yes, funny thing was the college didn't call a SNOW DAY!


Then the neighbors went to work on each other's houses, we shoveled each other's driveways so we could all get out if we had too! Never had a body ached so bad the next day when you woke up! Talk about the back aches of all back aches. I told my oldest daughter she and her friends should go around the neighborhood and ask people if they wanted to pay for them to shovel their driveways and sidewalks. She looked at me if I was crazy and speaking a foreign language. NOT! She was going to spend the day playing in it, taking pictures for Myspace, and just enjoying the day since every kid in about 50 miles was off for the day.


We made a snowman that was 6 feet tall and a snow dog so he wouldn't get lonely! We had the most amazing snowball fight ever since no cars were on our streets, snow plow drivers don't do our street, so anyplace was fair game. The battle was on! Then we tossed our kids into snow drifts to see how that felt! Heck for us adults it was the best snow day ever! Heck my hubby even strapped on his skis just to say he skied our driveway!


The best part of all of it was the roads were closed for about 2 days except for our major streets so it was a whole lot quieter than usual, and since it was only a week before Christmas, it made this whole experience magical. We even got blessed to have my dear hubby home from work during this time frame! So we were all together and got two days to really enjoy our kids! We even got some real Christmas pictures to email out to everyone! The best part of it was, we didn't need to leave home to get it. It was just outside our front door and it stayed for a whole week. Yes we still officially had some on the ground for a short period each Christmas morning.


Now every time I see the pictures we took for two days come up on my computer as a screen saver, I can't help but smile and remember just how special snow can be! Here is hoping for at least one more before the year is out. Are you listening God?