Living in a Snow Day Moment

Here in southeast Virginia, winter and snow aren’t words that pair automatically, like macaroni and cheese or peanut butter and jelly.  Indeed, even the rumor of flurries prompts local residents to clear store shelves of not only mac and cheese, peanut butter and jelly but milk, bread and eggs, too.

Years back, my mother was visiting from PA when she caught me glued to the local news early one morning.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“I’m watching the school closings,” I replied.

My mother glanced at the thin dusting on my lawn and gave me a puzzled look.  “Why,” she asked, “would you expect school to be closed?”

I gave her and equally puzzled look.  “Mom, I explained, the local government and the military have already buckled beneath the weight of this storm—the schools are sure to follow.”

It’s true: our courts, military bases, and school systems cannot sustain operations during even the merest amount of winter precipitation. 

Which is why a Real Snow Event such as the 8+ inch accumulation we had last week, is a really big deal in these parts.

Now, I’m a girl of sun and surf: long sun kissed days and warm, firefly-lit nights are my thing.  But I enjoy a good snowstorm as much as the your average elementary student, particularly in light of our recent live-in-the moment discussions. 

So I decided to have as much fun in the snow as seemed reasonable.  Within minutes after the first flakes began to fall, I grabbed my camera, outfitted it with the macro lens I got for Christmas and attached it to my tripod.

Even with the fun as I was having with my camera, I still wanted to do more than just let my husky run around the back yard (although that was a treat to watch).  The Baker and I got excited about attaching Audrey to some sort of sled and mushing with her.  We couldn’t really find a sled, so we did what any beach-dwelling family with a husky might do:  we hooked her up to a body board.  And that where the truly Big Fun began:

Audrey was a natural.  It was so much fun to see her dig in with her hind legs and get into a rhythm: she was doing what she was born to do.  I had such a good time, I almost wished we had snow every day.  Almost.

The snow has now melted, but not before we sucked ever big of fun from it’s cold, wet goodness.  May a snowfall never end without my yard looking like this: