The Friday before the start of our two week winter break from school, we had the first snowfall of the year.  It was not a lot but enough for the school district to declare it a two hour late start.  It was my first taste of how it will feel when I am a teacher and such delays and school cancelations occur.  I was as excited as Cody and Carter!

The boys bundled up in snow pants and jackets, layering them on right over the top of their pajamas, for there was no time to waste.

My photos are on the poor to blurry side as I had our black furred wiggly two year old lab, Haley on her leash in one hand and the camera in the other.  Haley, our rescue dog who came from sunny California, was quite unsure what to make of all that cold white stuff that dared to drape over her backyard and nip coldly at her toes.  It did not take her long to discover that it was fun to flay around and dig in.

We threw snowballs, made a lopsided pirate snowman with a Kosher dill cocktail pickle for a nose (one of his rock eyes fell out and so Carter declared him to be a pirate), jumped on a snow covered trampoline, and tried to teach Haley to catch snowballs but instead ended up pelting her in the face several times leaving us feeling a little bad and her a little confused, we trundled inside to the warmth of a fire and some hot cocoa.

With the last of the cocoa tipped from our mugs and the melted marshmallow licked from our fingers, we went off down the hall to ready ourselves for the start of another school day.  But what a magical way to start the day.

A final note on the last photograph – I really liked how the snow looked on our rod iron garden whimsy and so I took several pictures.  I did not notice the bright green Frisbee hanging in the lilac bush directly behind it until I had put the pictures on the computer.  At first it saddened me but then I realized that the Frisbee is pretty perfect, a nice representation of our lives.  There may be moments in my life that are pristine and pretty, but there is always a neon green Frisbee lurking around in the background to keep me humble.