It's been a beautiful winter in Utah so far, with quite a bit of snow. There's so much delight in my Pacific Northwest heart for snowy winters. It was such a delicacy growing up!
MY cute neighbor boys also love the snow. They build the funniest snow people and animals, sometimes even in my yard! I love it!
Some of my favorite snow memories:
The first time it snowed at my house outside Seattle Washington was a Thanksgiving day. No school. My sisters and I played outside the entire day. We made gloves out of socks and plastic bags but froze anyway. We made the biggest snowman possible with the half inch (1cm) of snow we got. "An absloute morphadite." Absolute giddy joy.
Driving into Portland Oregon during a major blizzard that shut the city down for three days before Christmas. So few cars on the road, people skiing and walking through town. Time spent with sisters, cooking, eating, laughing. Quietness and stillness. In winter, snow allows us to embrace the warmest parts of our lives.
Cross Country skiing in Grand Targhee National Forest. The trail turned and a snowy riverbed came to view. It was filled dozens of trumpeter swans. White on white on white on white. The stillness, the trickle of running water. So much wonder. Just as I continued on, another skier rounded the bend and startled the swans. They took off, wings beating the water at unbelievable decibals, like cannons.
The night my little sister and I walked out into a field of glittering fluffy snow, laid down and made snow angels facing up to the most starfilled heavens I'd ever seen. (I won't tell you about how, while making a snow angel, I'd found a small, perfectly round rock and tossed it up into the air. I also won't tell you that if I had been aiming I could never have hit my sister more squarely between her eyes).
The two weeks of deep freeze in Munich. Cycling through the Englischer Garten with so many people out playing in the snow and ice skating on the frozen lake and river. The glee of it all.
Walking on the sidewalk in NarYan Mar Russia with a 5 foot wall of snow on either side of me, and the squeaky sounds my boots made as I walked. It had finally warmed up enough to snow and every snowflake was a perfect micro ballerina that swirled down in sparkling heaps. Later I ran into my host, Tatiana Ivanova and started walking home with her. When we got to a square, there were dozens of people gathered there, all looking up. We stopped and were delighted by the best show on earth: the northern lights, glimmering green directly overhead.
Cross country skiing in arctic Finnland with John, trying to see the northern lights but only managed to see the skinny pines loaded with whipped marshmallows. Absolutely dreamy (we did see them later, sans skis).
Snow is my happy place. We will be lighting our Finnish Candles tomorrow night! Come by if you're in the area.
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