11.17.05
Snow, snow go away…
As an adult, you have very little use for snow (unless you’re an avid skiier, I suppose). It’s cold, it’s messy, it gets in the way of putting up Christmas lights and driving your car. It means shoveling the driveway and sidewalk, sometimes more than once a day. It means it takes twice as long to get anywhere. Most people I know greet the arrival of snow with disgust. Nope, we have no use for snow unless we get to stay inside and look at it.
That is, until you have little children. Not too little, though. I remember trying to point out our first snow of the year to Noah when he was just 1. He looked outside but seemed relatively indifferent to it. I’m not even sure he knew what I was talking about. By the time he turned two, it was something curious, but that’s about it. Adventures in snow pants were more an excercise in frustration. By the time he was all bundled up he looked more like an animated pile of clothing than anything else. One that couldn’t move very well, tripped constantly, and couldn’t get back up on its own. Last year was slightly better. This year, however, it’s different.
It’s snowing this morning, our first of the year. It’s more a spitting of little tiny flakes that you can barely see, that melt before even hitting the ground, but hey, it’s still snow. I pointed this out to Noah. “Hey Noah, look outside. What’s falling from the sky?” Instant wonder. His face was transformed. “It’s snow! It’s winter now!”… followed by “I want my snow boots”. Hey, if it’s snowing, aren’t footwear called snow boots appropriate? Who cares if the only thing on the ground are leaves. This was followed by “it’s Christmas time!”. Yes, in about a month it will be Christmas, but first we need to have Thanksgiving. Apparently, who cares about Thanksgiving. “Santa’s coming!”. I don’t know where he got this. Although he knows who Santa is, we don’t teach him that Santa brings his presents. Presents come from mommies and daddies and grandmas and grandpas and aunts and uncles. Santa is just the guy we see in the mall sometimes. And then he rushed upstairs and put on his Christmas cd and hummed along.
I can remember this happening to me when I was in 1st grade or so. We got our first snow of the year as I was playing down the street with my friend Glorianne. Now that I think on it, I have no clue if I spelled her name correctly. Unlike Noah, I couldn’t read by the age of 2. Anyway, we were outside playing and the same sort of spitting, tiny, barely-seen snowflakes started falling. I ran all the way down the street, rushed into our house, and started going through the closet. Mom asked what I was doing. I was getting my snowsuit, of course. Mom said I didn’t need it. Yes, I did, it was snowing! And while in the back of my head I think I knew we weren’t going to end up with feet, or even inches of snow, it was my way of celebrating winter. The joys of being outside and making snowballs and snow-angels and eating icicles. The thrills of climbing the big piles of snow that were made on the edges of the school parking lot by the snowplows. The silliness of slipping and sliding around like crazy people, and trying to catch snowflakes on your tongue. The knowledge that Christmas was just around the corner.
So, who cares if it’s not going to stick. Who cares if we’re not even going outside. Maybe I should let him run around in snow boots this afternoon. And although I only really appreciate winter from the inside, maybe I should try to see it through Noah’s eyes. Someday he’ll grump about winter, too. But for now, it’s magical.