Snow Day!

My mom has worked at Black Diamond Elementary School since I was in first grade. Apart from never having to worry about forgetting your lunch money and getting to see inside the world of the top-secret teacher's lounge, the best benefit to her job was that we were always among the first to know when school was closed for snow. Long before it showed up on the local news, my mom would get the call from the school employee's phone tree. I remember how the snow transformed our yard. My parents have 5 acres of property-- an eternity of playspace to a kid in the snow. My brother and I would sled down the driveway, build snow forts, have snowball fights and build snowmen until we were frozen. Then, we'd come in and sit by the fire, drink some cocoa, and we'd be back at it again as soon as we were thawed out. Snow days were my favorite.

On Tuesday this week, I had my first grown-up snow day (note: just then, when I tried to type "snow," it came out "snot." "snot day." Gross.) and it was amazing! It was just like being a kid again. It had been so cold here that when the snow fell, it was falling on top of ice. We here in the greater Seattle area are not used to getting much of this kind of weather, so the whole area just basically shut down. Eric and I watched the news until about 6:30 with our brekfast in bed. Then we walked to the store to buy hot chocolate, batteries for the camera, and a few other snow day essentials. We spent a few hours on work that we had brought home with us in preparation for the storm. Then we headed up to the local golf course to go sledding with my sister's famiy and my parents. I almost hit my head on a tree. Seriously. I was *this*close. We put up Christmas lights on our cute little house and finished decorating the inside. Then it was off to my sister's house for chili dogs and "White Christmas." What a great day! It was different from, but every bit as enjoyable as my childhood snow days. Hooray for God for being so creative and for making something as fun and beautiful as snow, and for an unexpected day to hang out with my hubby!

Here are some pictures of our house and car in the snow, us in the snow, our neighborhood in the snow, random palm trees growing in Enumclaw (serious) covered in snow, and a bonus picture of our Christmas tree. Thanks to our awesome friend Jeanne for helping us pick it out and set it up when she was here over the weekend. Love you, pally!