First snowfall

The snow must have followed us home from the mountains after we cut our Christmas tree on Saturday, because we woke up on Sunday morning to a white world outside. It was barely an inch, but that was enough to transform the gray-brownness outside to white.

This was technically our second snowfall, but the light dusting we had on Thanksgiving doesn't really count. I usually love the cozy feeling of the first snowfall of the winter, but on Sunday it felt bleak and cold and threatening. Jeff had to be at church early so I had to drive in the snow. Sunnyside doesn't plow its roads and my Tennessee-raised self has major winter weather driving anxiety. Jeff offered to come home and pick us up before church, but I didn't want to be too pathetic for this mere inch of snow, so I declined his offer and inched my way to church at 15-20 mph the whole drive. We made it!

After church, the kids begged me to come play outside with them. Jeff was resting with a slight recurrence of his head cold, so it was just me. I had the kids go outside before me to  burn off extra energy before I joined them. Then, with a large portion of maternal grace and sacrifice, I bundled up and went out into the frigid whiteness. The kids were way out back taking turns sledding down the steep short dirt hill on our only plastic sled, churning up dirt tracks in the thin white snow. Minutes after I arrived on the scene, Rose began to have an issue with snow getting onto her wrist underneath her glove. In classic Rose style, this small patch of cold wetness caused a major meltdown that "you don't understand!!!" Since none of us could possibly know how awful Rose was feeling, we decided to preserve our own sanity and leave her to sort out herself. We walked back towards the house, rolling snowballs along the way. Eventually Rose calmed down and joined us in building a snowman. Then it was inside for hot chocolate!

This first snow stuck around for days in the frigid gray gloom. The kids played on the frozen shallow canal water whenever I encouraged/banished them outside during the week. Our dirt/gravel driveway was slightly treacherous for my weekday running driveway laps while Amber played inside, so I was glad when the snow retreated. But it left a very gray colorless blob of landscape behind. Winter is here, gloomy as ever. Time to crank up the Christmas music and lights while we can!

View from my window on Sunday morning before church. 

White on Whites: post-church kids-in-snowy-driveway. 

 I took individual pictures of each kid for Rose's annual elf yourself art project, where she creates paper elf bodies and glues our human heads to the tops. Our Christmas tree is hung almost exclusively with comical paper "elf yourselves" from the past six years.

 Did I mention that Rose got new glasses last month? Her old frames broke again, and were still under warranty again, but the company had replaced the old multi-color pattern on those frames with a pink and black design. Free replacement and a new color: we were fine with it, although Rose did miss the awesome old multi-color frames for a little while.

 Amber and her under-eye dimple! She's still learning how to smile on command.

 I actually DID my hair on Sunday (aka wore it down and straightened it) so I popped my head into a "we survived our first snowfall drive without crashing" triumph picture. I struggle with static cling during the winter--dresses, drisilque, HAIR--so it is a rarity for me to wear my hair down. 

 Those little tiny specks in the middle left of the scene are my children. Apparently before I arrived, Amber sledded down the steep little hill on the left and over the edge of the "cliff" into the irrigation ditch. Jay proudly told me when I walked up that Amber went into the ditch but got out all by herself. The girl was covered head to foot in DIRT, and happy as can be.

 Amber kept falling while climbing up the steep hill.

 Dirt-crusted snow baby.

 I couldn't resist sneaking a picture of the utter misery of Rose's meltdown. She was completely without reason. None of my MANY temper diffusing techniques worked or helped at all. Talking to her was like throwing large rocks at a beehive from point-blank range. But dear intense Rose did eventually recover herself and turn her happy cheerful self, like usual, and we all forgave her, like usual.

Me and my boy, hoarding snow on our walk back to the house. It took forever to roll these snowballs in the sparse snowfall! 

 Amber took charge of the sled. Hiking through that deep lumpy grassy field is no small feat for her little feet. She kept filling the sled with snow to bring home, so her work was made harder and heavier than it needed to be.

 Our cute snowman. Rose made his hair out of pine boughs and eyes out of rocks, and I gave him a pine cone necktie and a baby carrot nose. His smile is a bendy stick anchored with snow on both cheeks. Amber helped find rock eyes for the snowman's little brother.

Jay took the picture for us. I'm not sure what he ended up doing with his own carefully crafted snowball. Partway through our snowman building, his friend Tanner walked over and started shoveling our patio and sidewalk, so Jay helped him. We used some of their freshly shoveled snow for the torso of the snowman. Rose made the head.