Snow Days

I like snow days. A lot people don't like them because they dread the pile up of work, or days to be made up, or being trapped in a house with a bunch of rambunctious kids, or the dirty floors from the snow and grime tracked in. But I like the entire deal. When my kids lived at home all I remember were the good memories and the fun pictures from those moments that are not duplicated in any other setting.

Here is a list of what I like:

- I like the food that goes along with the cold weather. Chili and soups and good Italian pasta. Big breakfasts of eggs and bacon or pancakes. I like holding a mug of hot coffee and nursing that thing along until it is gone or I have to reheat it. I enjoy the festival of baking cookies and always being amazed that the number of cookies never matches the number we should have generated with the recipe (I suspect the constant grazing on the cookie dough probably throws off the number) I like the smells that are generated by all this cooking, filling the house with a reminder that most of our really good memories are around the dinner table.

- I like the fireplace. I know that most folks now have the gas fireplaces with the ceramic logs, but I like having a real fire with real wood. I enjoy the constant fiddling with the logs and making sure that the fire is "pretty." I even like the phenomenon of the rest of the house being much cooler and the fireplace being a little nova of warmth and community. There is something restorative about parking by the fire in a big chair, or snuggled up with my bride late in the evening after we have shoved the loveseat over in front of the fireplace. I especially like the contentment that comes from nursing along a really nice pinot noir late in the evening and watching the fire burn down and thinking deep, deep thoughts. There are not many things that generate the reflection that a good fire backed by a snowstorm will bring.

- I like (although now in shorter sprints) playing in the snow, laughing at the kids and dog. Memories of dragging them behind the lawnmower or the car on a sled or a big piece of card board. I enjoy the emergence of the neighborhood snowmen. The ice always catches me off guard and I still chuckle to myself at my silly clumsy spraddle-legged walk when I unexpectedly hit a patch of ice. I like looking at and wondering about the icicles that form on the house eaves, always the same, but always catching me by surprise.

There is something congenial about cold and snow and ice. It forces us indoors and forces us together. There is something wonderful and being able to stay snuggled in under the flannel sheets, curled up with my bride and knowing that the day is not filled with going and doing. I like that it slows and pauses and lets us enjoy the infrequency of this weather in Texas.

I like it for about three days...then I'm done, but those are usually three great days.

Godspeed to the snow folks, I am not a resident, only a tourist.
Don