We love snow!

While I still have some experiences from the holidays that I have yet to share, today's blog is specifically prompted by Kerrie's blog about playing in the snow with Andie.

The Sylvesters made a Christmas visit to us in 2004. It snowed the night that they arrived and first thing the next morning the girls wanted to go out in the snow. Since they had been living in California and Florida since they were little, snow was a huge thing! The first thing was to find something for them to wear -- they had light jackets and sneakers. I found some polar fleece jackets that my mom gave the boys years ago, so that was a start. Next I located several pairs of those magic gloves which are super small but stretch to fit anyone. But I knew that they would be soaked in seconds so I got out my gardening gloves which at least are waterproof on the palms. But their feet were a problem - I didn't have any extra boots and they would have been way too big anyway. So we put ziplock bags on Hayley's feet. But Audre's feel were too big so we used trash bags and those plastic lock ties to keep her shoes dry. It worked surprisingly well. Hayley wanted to take one of her stuffed animals outside with us but I wouldn't let (I didn't think having a soaking wet stuffed animal sounded very good and didn't think she would let me put him in a bag with a zip tie around his neck!) We compromised on sitting him in the wooden high chair just inside the french door so he could watch us. Brooke and TJ came out for a few minutes and threw some snowballs from the deck but quickly decided to go inside. At that point the girls wanted to make a snowman. I had checked out the snow and the snow in the back yard was very dry and powdery -- not good for a snowman of any size. But the snow in the side yard was wetter so that was where we started rolling a ball for our snowman. But then Hayley said we had to move the snowman since the stuffed animal couldn't see us there. Being a good grandmother, I got a tarp from the garage and we moved the snowman parts to the back yard and built it right in front of the french doors. We had to get very creative with the decorating as the snow was very unreceptive of decorative items -- we tried carrots and raisins and all kinds of things from the pantry. Finally we found that we could use a skewer to make holes for things that had stems. So we cut some seed heads from the black eyed susans and some ornamental grasses for hair and had a very unusual snowperson! And while it was much more challenging than I had expected, I'm sure I will remember it for many years to come! And I hope the girls will too.