Less Snow More Fun

Sometimes, less is more.

Take the snowfall amounts this year, which have been minuscule to non-existent. The kids have both been complaining that they hadn’t had a chance to play in the snow this year. They wished there was more snow to play in, like last year.

And there’s the key: like last year. We had so much snow last year, it was easy for them to assume that’s what every year is going to be like. I even remember telling them not to assume we’d have another Winter like last year again, perhaps ever. But it fell on deaf ears. Play in the snow? There’s always next Winter.

Then next Winter arrived, but the snow didn’t.

They were both overjoyed to learn that snow was forecast for today. The talk around town was for an early dismissal because it was suppose to start falling about midday. I actually got the alert around 9 this morning. The snow start falling around 11:30, only a little before the lass arrived home. In fact, because of the timing of the storm, there’s an expectation that tomorrow will have a delayed opening. It’s one of the dirty little non-secrets of the public school systems that “half” days don’t count as missed days, meaning they don’t have to be made up like a cancellation does. Thus, someone imagines a snowflake falling in the woods somewhere and next thing we’ve got a 2-hour delay, or a shortened day.

The lass arrived home around noon. The boy got home around 1 or so with the early dismissal. They both were hoping there would be FEET of snow. Alas, we’re only supposed to get up to 5 inches or so.

But it’s proving to be more than enough.

Once it started to stick, they both kept an eye on the ground to judge when a good time to head out and play in it would be. Last year, there was 2 feet plus out there for most of the Winter. We had to throw them outside to get them to go play. Today, there’s barely 2 inches on the ground and they couldn’t get their stuff on and get out there fast enough. The lass was talking about making snow angels and throwing snow balls for the dogs. The boy decided to make the snowman above, with some help from the lass.

It was a year in the making, but I’d say they learned a lesson. Maybe even attained a little wisdom.