Mississippi Snow Day
You hear the words “Mississippi Snow Day” about as often as you would imagine seeing an octopus juggling pineapples. It’s a rare occurrence. And as this native Northwest gal has learned, you don’t wait a couple more days to play in the snow…you make the most of what is right in front you. Because Lord knows that snow will be gone by 2pm. So when my children woke up….at 5am….and yelled “SNOOOOOOWWWW!!!!!” clear across the house I knew there was going to be an early morning jaunt outdoors. My 8 year old came into our bedroom and explained to us he was crying because he was so happy there was snow, “I just never imagined we would have snow. I’m so happy I’m crying Mom.” By some miracle, my husband and I were able to convince the boys we couldn’t play in the snow until it was light out thus giving ourselves the time to get ourselves the much needed first cup of coffee for the morning ahead of us.
Growing up with snow most of the winter in Washington state, it made my heart a little bit sad my kids wouldn’t have all the same winter memories I did of sledding every weekend or making snow caverns in our juniper bushes. But for a couple hours, this was going to be the most magical time in their life and that in itself is a wonderful memory I realized. Let the memory making begin!
I helped bundle each child up in the snow gear I had slowly accumulated over the years and saved for such a time as this. So as I put mismatched mittens on my 1 year old and silently told myself…”I can’t believe I lugged these things through 3 house moves just to use it this once…but it’s all worth it now because I’m using them!” But within 5 minutes of being outside my 1 year old threw the mittens off and I found a baby sock over his hand was much more practical. So yeah, I lugged mismatched winter mittens around for 6 years for no real reason.
The morning was indeed magical though as my children did every snow activity imaginable with construction of “Sue the Snowman” being the definite highlight. Our friends driving by stopped to help us with Sue and play for awhile. My youngest was a little unsure some of the time if he was truly into this cold wet stuff but he put up with it even if a look of confusion was stuck on his face. Overall it was all glorious magic that lasted exactly until 2:30pm….when everything literally melted. Ah well. Such is Mississippi Delta life.
