The Allure of Snow

It's the middle of winter.

Really.

Life in California is rough stuff sometimes. My kids are complaining because they say they've never seen snow. That is totally not true. Well, 50% not true. Big G and Baby X have seen snow and have even played in it... but they were only 4 and 2. G remembers it vaguely, but X does not.

We keep talking about taking a family trip to snow country so the kids can frolic in the frosty white stuff, but I know how the whole snow thing would play out.

First, there'd be the several hours of driving to get to the snow. Oh, wait... back up... first, there'd be the several hours of packing and planning for a trip with 4 children. Then there'd be the several hours drive. Oooops!...forgot another preliminary step: Procuring snow gear to adequately clothe and boot children who have never experienced sub-freezing temperatures.

We would arrive. The kids would be super excited.  They would be so excited that their brains wouldn't register the frigidity of the air temperature while unloading the car. We would go inside and start the bundling process necessary to play in snow. They would state that it wasn't all that cold out. They would insist that they felt fine on that 30-second walk in from the car. Finally, they'd be as properly bundled as their kvetching would allow and would step outside to play in snow for the first time.

The level of their excitement would be off the charts. Snow angels, snowballs, snowpeople... a little sledding or saucering... Hopefully, we would have the cameras at the ready because this would last 30 minutes at the most.

Because about then it would sink in.

Snow is COLD.

And when snow melts, it becomes water, and water is WET.

Cold and wet is not all that much fun...especially when you are a weather-spoiled California child. They'd come back in, probably still in good spirits but screeching about how cold they were. They would come in to sit by a fire and drink hot chocolate and play board games and read...and not want to venture out into the snow again for more than 30 minutes at the most.

By the end of the several hours drive home, they'd be reminiscing about the awesome snow trip...having forgotten about the freeeeeezing part. And certainly unaware of the fact that we had driven several hours (times two) for one hour total of snow-frolicking. And entirely oblivious of the parental energy expended and the costs incurred. And that is all as it should be :)

I know one day they will wear me down. It will be memorable. They will love it... for one hour in the moment and a lifetime after.

In the meantime, we continue to suffer without snow. To get our minds off this suffering, we went for a walk/trike ride today. Yes, my kid wears a helmet when she rides her tricycle. Ingraining the helmet habit from an early age ;-)

she digs playing with her shadow

Toddlers have such disproportionately large heads, and as Miss C was walking around with her rad Thomas the Tank Engine helmet on, something looked so familiar...

The Great Gazoo ... 

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...or Marvin the Martian?

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What do you think of snow? 


I actually like snow ... for a couple of days and if I don't have to get anything done in it.


Do you live where it snows? 


No!


What did you think of snow when you were a kid?

I thought snow was so super cool when I was a kid. I remember when it snowed the ONE time...I was 10. When I went to college in a place where it snowed, people thought I was a freak because I would stand outside while the snow came down, looking up with wonderment. After college I lived where it snowed and wasn't so crazy about needing to get to work in it :P