Life in the 850 – Snow Day …. :)

 

Snow…snow…snow…snow!! “It won’t be long before we’ll all be there with s n o w…I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow…I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow…” 

If you’ve never heard this Irving Berlin song sung by none other than Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen in the classic movie “White Christmas” then all I have to say is….Why Not??  😛

Most of the country has been covered in snow at one time or another this winter...in fact, I heard that 49 of our 50 glorious states have had snow this winter (including Hawaii)…guess who that 50th state with no snow is? 🙂  Yep, you got it…Florida! Chicago has had the biggest blizzard in history within the last 126 years (statistic by Adrienne :))!

So, I’m living vicariously through my friends and family…as I write this there‘s another storm coming our direction. Snow is everywhere! There’s simply something magical about the snow! It can turn any plain, ordinary scenery into a wonderland of Winter! I have so many fond memories of the snow growing up in Chicago area. Like I told you in an earlier post, I grew up along the Little Calumet River and we had dikes on either side of the river to protect against flooding. Well, in the winter, these dikes were perfect for sledding! We would get six kids on the tobaggan, push off and sail down the side of the dike (which was very steep), across the frozen river and 1/2 way up the dike on the other side! We spent hours out there sledding, iceskating, building bon-fires by the edge of the river. What a playground for kids it was! Winter is absolutely my favorite season!!

One year the weather forecast was predicting snow before Thanksgiving! My sister and I were soooo excited that we couldn’t sleep that night. We really did try…but layed awake talking into the wee hours of the morning. Then around 3:00 am we looked out the window and it was snowing! It was snowing HUGE flakes…those kinds of flakes that are created when you live near a lake…big, wet snowflakes, perfect for building snowmen! We were so excited that we could hardly stand it, but my mom had given us strick orders (before she went to bed) that if it started snowing in the middle of the night, we weren’t allowed to go out in it until the sun came up!

So, not able to go out in the snow yet, we celebrated the only other way we knew how…we put on Christmas music and danced around the house singing! Of course, we had to turn it up loud so we could hear it as we danced around….and as you can imagine, we woke up my mom and dad who were less than happy with us and thought we were a little crazy.

Linda & I stayed up the rest of the night talking about what we were going to do in the snow that day and finally crashed just before sunrise. We slept until noon…haha….so much for getting out in the snow first thing when the sun came up! lol.

Snow has a way of washing away any feelings of discontent or anger that you might be having as well. I believe snow is a little gift from God to us! In my life God always seemed to send me some snow when I really needed it…and it worked every time to wipe away the stress and make everything seem magical! I have a video from when we lived in Virginia of an icestorm that was about the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. It was breathtaking….and I know it was a gift from God with my name on it :).  However, my video camera got stolen and I don’t have any way of watching this video at the moment. Once I get a new camera, I will upload that video so you can share in the magic (even if it’s summer time by the time I am able to load it :).   

Well, I seriously could go on and on about the snow. Me and snow…..we go waaaayyy back! I know that when I get to live where it snows again one day that we’ll pick right back up where we left off…snow and me! 🙂 But for now, I’m living vicariously through all my friends and family who have allowed me to use their snow day pictures!

Thank you everyone, I feel like I have actually been walking with  my old friend, snow, through  your pictures! Enjoy the snow, glorious snow!!

Click the full screen button for a better view 🙂

 

**I have corrected the above video as well as added music from my all-time favorite ballet – The Nutcracker. Have a listen and enjoy 🙂

Here are the songs:

1st song:
Tea from The Nutcracker Ballet
London Symphony Orchestra
Classical 1985

2nd song:
Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy
Tchaikovsky: The Best Of Classical Music
Armonie Symphony Orchestra, Peter Waren, Uberto Pieroni
Classic Rock 2010

3rd Song:
Waltz of the Flowers
Classical Music in Movies
Pyotr Il’yrich Tchaikovsky

**All songs were purchased as MP3’s from Amazon.com