Snow

I woke up this morning and, as I looked out the front window, saw snow falling - big thick flakes that were accumulating fairly quickly too. That was around 8 a.m. and a little after noon now, the snow is still coming down. It's finer now, but still coming, still sticking to the ground.

I'd estimate we have two, maybe three inches of new-fallen white fluff now on the ground. But early this morning, the amount sticking, the way the roads were at that hour, put a crimp in the plans Mandy had for this morning.

She'd enrolled Maya in a swimming class at the YMCA in Clearfield and today was to have been the beginning class. Last night, Maya had tried on the new swimsuit - in pinks and lavenders, her favorite colors -that are splashed across the fabric in a wavy pattern. She was so excited, so proud, so preening in that little outfit and also, very excited about the prospect the morning held for her. She loves the water. In the tub, in the little pool Mandy had bought last summer and had set up in the front yard for the kids, Maya was definitely a "water baby!"

But with the roads being what they were this morning, Mandy decided a drive to Clearfield was just to risky at that time and the first swim lesson was out-of-the question for today.

Then she called the YMCA to inquire about the swimming lesson program, making up the missed lesson, etc., and learned some good news in the process.

Seems she had marked the wrong date on the calendar for the beginning of this class. It didn't begin today but starts NEXT Saturday! Yay, yay!

She then told Maya they would go outside and "play" in the fresh-fallen snow - a move that totally delighted Maya. She'd received one of those saucer sleds for Christmas and we haven't had all that much snowfall this winter nor anyone available at times when we did have enough snow on the ground to be with her so she could play in the snow with the sled, so she was really excited about that.

Here's Maya actually "using" the sled too.


And, while Maya was having so much fun playing in the snow, sliding on the saucer sled, here's what her mother (Mandy) was doing.

I look at these pictures of Maya at play in the snow, then at Mandy shoveling it to clear our parking area, and they bring back lots and lots of memories to me. Times when, as a child, I didn't slide on anything like a saucer or sled in our yard as my grandma would have had a hissy fit, telling me it would damage the yard somehow to do that. But my peers and I had better places than the slight slope in my yard to ride our sleds back then anyway. We climbed the hill across the road from my house and depending on the depth of the snow and how much energy we had too, could choose to have a short ride down that hill if we only went half-way up, or if we wanted a really good, long ride, we could drag our sleds behind us and trudge the whole way up the side of that hill to where the old railroad tracks had once been and then, throw the sled down with our bodies on top of it and really have a great ride. Depending on how much we had packed our sledding path down, our ride might end at the street that goes in front of the houses here or it might have continued on down the alleyway between our house and that of the Little family next door. Some times, when we had REALLY big snowfalls, it could even extend further down through the back field and stop at the "sulfur" creek (Moravian Run is its proper name) that cuts throughout the village.

Ah, those were the days. Indeed they were! Sled riding, ice skating out in the stripping cuts, building snow forts or igloos and snowmen in the yards, making snow angels in the fresh-fallen snow too - all great fun for kids of so many different ages who would come together and just enjoy the weather, being outside and each other. All things I rarely see happen with the kids who live on this street today.

They have no idea how much fun they're missing. Hopefully, the enjoyment Maya had today will follow her each winter as she grows up and maybe in a year or two, her brother, Kurtis, will be able to be outside frolicking in the beautiful white snow covering the ground too.

I hope they both learn to savor the joys of snow, of sled riding, snowmen, forts, igloos and to leave behind those angels in their wake. Angels made by those I consider to be my little angels today.