Snow Angels

It is winter! That may not be a revelation to you, but it just really hit me up here in the mountains of western North Carolina. I slipped taking the trash up the other night and it took several tries to regain my feet. One shoe was down under my car and one knee was scraped just enough that trying to get up on my knees was painful on the rough surface. No more complaining that I miss Illinois winters. My back yard has a few inches of snow covering everything and looking down the mountain is as astonishingly beautiful now as it was last summer, just different. Cars are parked in a neighbor's drive on the main road. The incline here is just too steep for icy weather, but that does mean a bit of a walk on icy pavements.

Lennon was so good today, allowing me to watch the Inauguration with as much attention as anyone with a three year old ever has. Our reward for his good behavior was to go outside after lunch and play in the snow. We built a very small snowman, complete with sunflower seed eyes and twig arms. I made a snow angel. Lennon opted not to get his pants and jacket wet. He's so much smarter than I am. We had a sword fight with two icicles I broke off the awning and I must say I backed him into a couple of corners, but of course he won anyway! Then we had "The Snowball Fight!"

Only a few inches of snow means meager snowballs, but we did all right. Dashing around the yard, falling into the fence, which thankfully kept us from falling down the mountain, and hiding behind whatever post or shrub was available. Well mostly I did the running and hiding as Lennon shrieked after me with handfuls of snow crying "Run for your life. I'm coming!" I did get in a few little shots of my own and you might know, I hit him right on the cheek with a snowball. It was a soft snowball, but it was cold. It was an accident, but the look on that little face..."you hit me in the face with snow!" was precious. I reached out to brush it off and he backed up indignantly. "Don't touch me with your glove. It's wet and full of snow!" So I suffered through taking off my gloves and wiping his face off with my hand. Once I tried to kiss his knee when he fell and he informed me he did not need that now. Little boys grow up way too fast.

Eventually his snowballs destroyed our snowman and all the icicles were used and we went back inside to sit by our fireplace and drink chocolate milk. Lennon is not a big fan of hot chocolate. He prefers it cold and calls it coffee so I always serve it in china tea cups with a dollop of whipped cream and a drizzle of caramel.

It was a beautiful day, starting out with hope for all and ending in absolute contentment, cuddled up with my favorite little guy.