Snowy Day

It snowed nicely last night. The weather information all day had been full of the impending snow, so it felt good for it to finally arrive. It started just as I dashed out of the house to take my oldest boy to his dance class. When I got home, Mark had arrived, so he sent my daughter out to come with me for a haircut. By the time we got to Fantastic Sam's, it was snowing in earnest. And me in my crocs.

We ran a bunch of errands and Little Missy listened to the book Everything on a Waffle on her mp3 player while I had my Chinese tuina (I think it means torture) massage on my ankle. Then we picked up the dancer, had dinner and the kids played in the snow until 9 o'clock. The first real snow of the season is always special. They were the only kids playing in it on the block.

Here's what I'm grateful for in this snow:

• The timing. It started snowing on Tuesday night, not Monday night. Or, worse, Tuesday morning when we have to leave really early on our hour long trek into the city for Girl Scouts.
• Accurate weather predictions. My kids are tired of threatened storms that never come. My father obsesses about the weather while it is predicted, during the storm and the immediate aftermath. Accurate predictions, in a way, justify his worry.
• Our neighbor found a plow guy. And they didn't come until after Mark was already up! We share a driveway and don't have much space to put the snow. It's an extravagance, but easier on our backs. And it was a nice surprise this morning.
• Homeschooling. I am so happy my kids don't have to trudge down to school, hurrying not to be late and not enjoying the delight of the first snow. As soon as the Little Man is up and breakfasted, we plan to head to the sledding hill for some fun.

We have a nice three or four inch coating and are supposed to get a bit more in lake effect this morning. It's warm enough to be good sledding snow, I sure hope so.