I, too, am slightly done with winter, my comment today is, "-->does not remember saying anything untoward to Mother Nature, but sincerely apologizes nonetheless and would like to declare a truce."
Happy~ish Snow Day ~Jennifer
December Storm
The air coming in through the open bedroom window felt
damp. Madeleine pushed off her covers,
got out of bed, and padded across the floor to the window. She pulled back the curtain. The yard was covered in a thick blanket of
snow. Her eyes grew wide and excitement
coursed through her body. Madeleine had
been waiting for the first snow of the season.
Running
into her parent’s bedroom she quickly threw up the shade and exclaimed, “Mom,
Dad, look! It snowed last night!” From the other room a sleepy voice called
out, “How much?” Madeleine replied,
“Enough. Let’s go!”
Madeleine and her younger brother Nicholas ran down the
stairs in their pajamas. They ignored
their grumbling stomachs and passed through the kitchen without stopping for
breakfast. Who needed food? This was the moment they had been waiting for. Their winter gear had been brought down from
the attic a few weeks before and they had been eagerly eying it hanging unused on
hooks by the door. “My favorite hat!” said
Madeleine as she pulled it from the basket.
“My snow pants are so warm,” said Nicholas. “Hey! Remember? We got new mittens at the end
of last winter.” Each piece of winter
clothing was impatiently pulled on.
Outside the world looked new. Madeleine and Nicholas breathed in the cold
winter air. It stung their noses and
filled their lungs. They took another
deep breath enjoying the cold but damp, snowy air. Then they went straight to work. The sleds were pulled from the shed and the
shovels were lined up along the house. Then
the two children grabbed the sleds and headed for the hill in the backyard. This was the best sledding, fresh snow meant
fresh tracks.
Madeleine and Nicholas each wrote their own stories in
the snow. Nicholas, who liked to go fast
and bail out of his sled near the bottom (rolling head over heels and getting
covered in snow), left tracks straight down the hill with a wide area of
disturbed snow at the bottom. Madeleine, who liked a longer, slower cruise,
left graceful, curving tracks in the new snow.
Up the hill they climbed and down the hill they glided until their legs
grew tired. Then they sat down, quenched
their thirst with mittens full of snow, and rested. They needed to save energy for shoveling.
Up the hill they climbed again and left their sleds at
the top. Madeleine and Nicholas headed
for the driveway and began to make paths and roads through the snow. Truck noises filled the air as the two
industrious workers cleared the roads. It was not the most efficient method,
but it was fun. From the house, the
driveway looked like a maze, although a maze with no recognizable entrance or
exit.
“Who wants warm maple syrup on snow?” Their mom called
from the porch. “We do!” they replied. Madeleine and Nicholas eagerly collected snow
in the bowls given to them and headed inside, their faces flushed and
rosy.
The inviting smell of homemade waffles filled the house. Madeleine and Nicholas quickly peeled off
damp layers of gear and left them in a heap on the floor. They grabbed their bowls of snow and headed
for the kitchen. “Mom, will you help us
hang up our gear? We want to go out
again after breakfast,” asked Madeleine.
Smiling, because she felt their joy, their mother hung up their wet gear
around the furnace and on every possible surface.
As the children sat at the kitchen counter eating fresh
waffles and warm maple syrup on snow, they talked about all the fun they would
have this winter. Unspoken in their
conversation was that they knew this day was special. It was the first snow of the season and the
first snow is always the best snow.
March Storm
The children slept soundly in their beds. The air coming into their bedrooms from the
open windows was cool and had that damp quality of spring precipitation. Madeleine was snuggled deep in her
covers. She stirred and opened a bleary
eye. She could smell the dampness in the
air. It’s snowing, she thought. She turned on her light and began to read
A while later Nicholas called out from his bedroom, “Are
you awake? It’s snowing.”
“I know,” answered Madeleine.
“Do you want to go out?” asked Nicholas.
Madeleine, still snuggled in her covers with her head propped
up on two pillows and her book on her chest, replied, “Not yet, I’m reading, but
maybe after breakfast.”
Her mom poked her head in the door, “We’re going down
to make breakfast.”
“Alright, I’ll be down in a while.” replied Madeleine.
“Let me know when it’s ready.” added Nicholas, who was
busy arranging his rescue vehicles around a block building.
When the smell of blueberry pancakes came drifting up
the stairs, Madeleine reluctantly put down her book and made her way down
stairs to the kitchen. Over breakfast of
pancakes, warm maple syrup, bacon and orange juice, the family decided what the
plans should be for the day.
Dad asked, “Who wants to help shovel? “
Nicholas responded, “Can’t you use the snow blower
dad?”
“Not on this snow, it’s too heavy for our machine,” replied
the dad.
“Okay,” said Nicholas, “I’ll help shovel, just let me
finish building my Lego ship.”
“I’ll help too, when I’m finished building this
airplane.” Madeleine added.
Their parents headed out to begin shoveling. The street was dressed in a blanket of
snow. The trees looked liked dancers,
gracefully extending their decorated limbs.
A little while later the children appeared on the scene. Everyone shoveled for a while. This was not the play shoveling of December,
but the get-it-done shoveling of March. Madeleine
and Nicholas grew tired and headed for the back yard. “Want to make a fort?” asked Nicholas.
“Sure, let’s use this pile from shoveling for one of
the sides. You start collecting snow
from over there,” directed Madeleine. They
hauled and packed snow until they had created a small fort. There was even a window from which to watch
people or throw snowballs, a feature tested on the unsuspecting parents. Spring snow is packing snow and what better
item to pack than a snowman. The zigzagging paths across the backyard resulted
in one large and one not so large snowmen.
They faced the back of the house, as if watching it. There was a scramble to find accessories and
then a call to witness the final product.
“Well done!” cheered the children’s parents as they admired the
snowmen.
It was well past
lunch and time to head in. They were
hungry after their busy morning. It had
been a fun morning, not as much fun as the first snow of the season, but snow,
at any time, always brings a fresh blanket of opportunity when it arrives.
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