The First Snow (Part 1)

On Sunday, we got an unexpected four inches of snow. The first snow is always so magical. The gleeful sound of children screaming with frustration because they can only find one glove. The joy of discovering that the boots you bought on sale at the end of last season are already too small so two kids are wearing boots that are the “wrong” color and one kid has his toes curled up backwards. The excitement of foraging through various closets looking for snow pants that don't have holes and that kind of fit only to discover you bought the same size pants for the same kid THREE times. The thrill of children wrestling each other in the laundry/coat room as they fight to be the first one outside.

I mean, at least it's pretty.

Getting all three kids out the door that first day it snows is always a Herculean task. Hats, gloves, scarves, snow pants, coats, and boots--finding these things and getting everyone dressed in the bottleneck that is our laundry room and door to the garage is nearly impossible. Further, just about the time I get the third kid out the door, the first one is already ready to come back in. And, this is where it gets tricky. I mean, it takes so long to get them all bundled, I kind of just want to keep them outside for as long as possible--or at least long enough to sit down and, say, read a whole page of a book or go to the bathroom. 

The time I made them stay outside and it turned out to be a blizzard.

Because if we leave all three kids out in the snow for too long, invariably someone will get hurt. Someone (or two, or sometimes even three) will come in crying with snow in his/her face, shirt, boots. Plus, when they come in, they simultaneously want help liberating themselves from their snow gear, and they want me to make a piping hot cup of hot chocolate ASAP. In their rush to be the first in line for hot chocolate, they manage to leave a mountain of coats, pants, boots, hats, gloves, and scarves on the garage floor that is so huge I wonder if they took some of these things off the neighborhood kids.

Ren's makeshift clothesline in the garage as a last-ditch effort to keep control of all the gear.

The good news is that we've survived the first snow, and now all the necessary articles of clothing have made their way to the garage for the winter. Who knows? Given that we are now generally prepared, maybe we'll get lucky and won't get anymore snow.