There were joyous shrieks and grand plans-
Let’s build a snowman!
Then have a snowball fight!
And make snow angels!
Catch it on our tongues!
And there was a tumbling ball of scarves and laughter and gloves down the stairs, tugged hands and pulling out the door-
C’mooooooooon already!
R. took the girlies to the playground. The three of them swung in the snow, fought over who would slide down the snowy slide first, threw snowballs, twirled, skipped, danced and fell down in laughter.
i stood mesmerized by the big flakes of snow as they slanted to the ground. i felt so seperate from myself- like one of those crystals drifting and piling up on the skeletal limbs of the cherry-plum trees. There was that swelling in my chest like when i am about to cry, only this time it was awe.
Being from southern California where a barbeque on Christmas has its own type of charm and people’s yards held lighted palm trees or seeing houses decorated with chili pepper lights, snow on Christmas was pure delight, a miracle, just so different.
A Christmas gift from the Creator of all that is truly beautiful: God.
And when we tucked the girls into bed, R. asked what they liked best about the day.
The SNOW!
They thanked God for His son and for the snow and told Him their plans for today. But upon waking, we found it melting. Still, we sat this morning at the window for a long time just watching, admiring and loving the snow- building a memory of our first Christmas in Talent, our first Christmas snow.
(copyright 2007) c. A. Hughes
12.26.07
Wow Christine that was so beautiful it felt like the beginning of a story I wanted to read the rest of – I’m so glad you were blessed with your first snow on Christmas day – how wondeful.
Chica
c responds:
Oh, Annie, it was great. Caity sang a song for the snow that lasted a really, really long time.
It wasn’t our first snow. When we moved here, we had to navigate the U-Haul through the Siskiyou Mountains on the tail end of a big snowstorm. It was scary. Almost as scary as seeing my very first bear crossing sign! And in California, we lived in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains and often visited the snow. But i had never seen it falling before.
Beautiful!
i wish you sled rides and snow forts and pounds of snow ice-cream