I Come From the Land of the Ice and Snow

Although I have lived in a southern clime for nearly 9 years now, I was born and raised in Michigan. I went to university in Chicago. I lived for 3 years in Philadelphia. My winters were spent sledding and ice skating and building snowforts and snowmen. Snow days were a gift. I did, however, also have my fair share of shoveling, icy roads, and having to have my car pushed out of a ditch where it got stuck in the snow after toilet papering someone's home. By the people who's lawn I had just decorated. Ahem.

My husband was born in California, but raised in Michigan. To him snow is a four letter word. He was a paper boy. Snow made his job very hard. He thinks only of the negatives when he thinks of snow.

The May Queen, on the other hand, was born in California. She lives now in Louisiana. Her experience of snow has pretty much been limited to what she reads in books or sees on TV. Until these last two weeks, that is.

When we were in California, we drove along the "grapevine" (I-5 north of LA through the mountains) to visit some friends in the central valley, where we used to live (and where MQ was born). There was some snow in the higher parts, and The May Queen was beside herself with glee. We pulled over so she could touch snow for the first time. She touched it tentatively. It was hard snow, snow with a crusty layer on top. I grabbed a handful and handed it to her. She immediately threw it to the ground and yelled "it's freezing!" and would have nothing further to do with it. Her daddy would have been proud.

However, our unexpected trip to Michigan afforded her the chance to encounter more snow. And be properly dressed for it. Although she tried valiently to make a snowman, it was not packing snow. But she did get to do some of the other things she has dreamed about doing. The things she reads about in books and sees on TV....

She made a snow angel (so did I!)

She caught snowflakes on her tongue (in the second picture she had thrown the snow up in the air for that particular purpose. In the other it was actually snowing. And when I try to edit this it is laid out much more nicely)

She ate snow. And gave herself a snowbeard.

We made a pile of snow, and she ran and jumped into it.

She learned this defensive maneuver for when a wad of snow was being thrown at her.

And when we came inside she drank hot chocolate.

As we flew home, The May Queen looked wistfully out the window and sighed "I miss playing in the snow." My husband muttered curses under his breath in the seat next to me.

Monday Missions are Back! Monday's mission is to write a post in the style of another blogger. This is in honor of the other person, so be nice, but have fun! And could I ask you all a wee favor? You see, I'm trying to catch up with the well over 400 posts that were in my reader when I returned. I'm getting to you. Slowly. While trying to catch up with the rest of my life, as well (you know, start rehearsals for a new show, prepare the house for guests later today, pay some attention to my husband, child and cat...). So could you all just PLEASE STOP POSTING over the weekend so that there aren't any NEW posts to read? Come back on Monday with a great post for the Mission, and we'll go from there. OK? Great, thanks.