A White (Day After) Christmas

Yesterday evening it snowed here in England! This was one of our family's hopes when we came here, because we never get any in Florida. When we found out that it would probably snow, we waited outside for the first flakes to begin to fall, and were glad that it continued to snow until there was a good four inches of snow on the ground.  

The snowscape outside our window.

We immediately began to play in the snow. We soon realized that cotton gloves and socks were not ideal for snowball fights, building snowmen, or even just walking through the snow. Our fingers and toes would freeze within the first sixty seconds. Fortunately, Mom and Dad had brought extra socks and gloves more suitable for the weather, and so we mostly just borrowed theirs and went outside again.     
We also learned the reason for snow pants, rather than just wearing jeans in the snow. If your jeans just as much as touch the snow, your jeans will become soaked, and your legs cold. Unfortunately we had brought no replacement for those, so we just had to bear it.  

Appreciating the first flakes of snow (mixed with rain droplets--no wonder the kids were wet and cold!)

Today, we went to the park to go sledding. We had no sleds, but we decided a few cookie sheets would do, right? Wrong! We tried to slide down the hill, but no matter what we tried we would just sink into the snow. Not even Brad could go anywhere, even when distributing his weight upon two of them. I guess we will have to find a better replacement so we can sled another time. 

Allison riding a cookie sheet down the driveway.

When it came to shoveling away the snow, we realized that we had nothing to do it with as well. Or did we? It turns out, even though cookie sheets do not make the best sleds, they make decent snow-shovels. In no time, we were shoveling away our driveway with them, so that if we wanted to, we could go somewhere. 

Shoveling the walk with a cookie sheet.

I used two think that snow would be so fun that I could never get tired of it, but even after the first day, I saw the nuisance it could cause. It made it harder to go places, we had to shovel it away, and hardest of all, we had to keep it outside. It definitely gives me a greater appreciation for the all-year warmth in Florida.