When it Snows

It doesn't happen often where we live, but when it does, we, Southerners, all act like a bunch of hyped-up crazies.  When it snows, we flood the grocery stores and hoard unnecessary amounts of food staples so the rest of the city is left savoring every last drop of milk and bread crumb.  Though the power rarely falters, nor the cable t.v., we prepare for "Snowmageddon" or "Snowpocalypse" in the worst way.  Thank goodness Walmart had plenty of food to share, because my family was actually out of milk before the snow came.

Then we waited.  While the weather men & women grasped at their 15 minutes, we searched the skies for the white stuff.  We had to send the kids off to bed with not a flake in sight, so we prayed that it would come.  And while they slept, it finally did. 

My husband gets as excited as the kids when snow comes to Georgia.  We stayed up, pretending to watch t.v., but really kept checking out the windows.  Then the wind blew in thousands of snowflakes.  The exclamations began, "Oh my gosh!  Look how much it's snowing!"  "Wow, I wonder if it'll stick!"  "Well, I guess they were right, afterall."  And within the hour, the scooter in our front yard was covered in white.  Soon after, it was completely buried.  We went to bed in a happy stupor, knowing that God had given us a free family day.  It was like Christmas morning.

When the family awoke, we all ran to the windows in wonder.  We measured 5 1/2" on the back porch, so my husband encouraged us to just say "6."  He likes a good story :-) 

For breakfast, we whipped up homemade pancakes and fried bacon in the skillet (we don't eat bacon often anymore, but this day called for the good stuff).  We kept the firewood stocked and blew smoke out of our chimney all day.  We met some friends to sled down their backyard hill.  We took lots of pictures.  We drank hot chocolate...twice.  We ate potato soup.

Because when it snows here, we celebrate.  We stress the importance of being safe on the roads, but I think what we really want (and need) is a good excuse to stop and enjoy ourselves.  Let the Scrooges work.  We have some snowman building to do!

When it snows, we bundle up in whatever warmish clothes we can layer, along with plastic Walmart bags to keep our feet dry.  When it snows, we pull out our summer pool floats, because sled sales are rather hard to come by in the south.  Then we become adrenaline junkies and the kids play until we make them come inside. 

It's funny how snow makes kids of us all.  I loved watching the grownups build snow ramps to sled over, and we cheered with every stunt. 

Now that the roads are clearing, and we all dive back into our routines, let's share a collective and contented sigh.  Now, wasn't that fun?