Fotu's got it all right! He determined the first year we moved back here to Provo that Heavenly Father should place a little grid up in the sky and allow the snow to fall in all the beautiful and fun places, but withhold it from all the sidewalks and roads where it just causes TROUBLE! Now wouldn't that be splendid! I'd go for that, and then maybe I'd appreciate it just a little more!
One more strike against SNOW should be completely explained in the following phrase - I am a FIRST GRADE TEACHER! Any First Grade Teacher KNOWS EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT! During the winter you have a few extra worries. Is the day too cold to be outside? Is the air quality too poor to be outside? Is the snow falling tooooo wet for 6 year olds to be outside? How many days has it been since we've been able to go outside? (Do you see a pattern here?) OK, so if it is determined that all is well, and the kids will have a chance to release their stir craziness - THEN you get to HELP bundle everyone up so they can even go outside! (Plan on beginning at least 10 minutes before recess should begin, so that recess is NOT ENTIRELY OVER before some of the children even get a chance to go out!) This is an all out attempt at patience! (You should try it sometime.) There are usually no less than five voices calling out at the same time, "Mrs. can you just zip my coat up?" "Mrs. I need help with my gloves! This finger isn't working!" (An A+ shout-out from Early Childhood teachers to the person who invented mittens!) "Mrs. where are my boots?" "Mrs. oh, no! I just went bathroom in my pants!" (And on and on!)
Yet, Snow is one of those - pleasures of childhood! Kids LOVE snow! What child doesn't thrill at and thoroughly enjoy snow? Fotu, Litia, & Kalina bundle up, whoop, holler, angel mold, slide, slip, and drag until they are cold and wet. Then it's inside for taco soup and hot chocolate.
I guess it would have helped - had I GROWN UP in the snow. It must have to grow on you! Snow is also one of those - romantic novelties. Young love and snow seem to always go hand in hand!
Childhood, young love, both places in life when TIME seems to stand still and there is NO need or even desire to have to get anywhere on TIME! So, I guess snow FITS there!
Yep! Snow and Christmas kind of go hand in hand! Sidekicks! I'll admit that Christmas lights in the snow luster with a profound magic! There is more patience for the powdery stuff EVEN IN MY HEART on that special day of love and good will. I don't mind sitting in a nice warm home looking out a picture window at the beautiful flakes falling softly, fluffily down - as long as I have a great book to read, am listening to wonderful music, have a great puzzle to piece, am baking, or am playing with my Seneti.
OK! True confessions time! I ENJOY shoveling snow! It is slightly similar to mucking out the milk house after the cows have done their duty. Slightly. Thankfully the similarity parts at my olfactory nerve. By the time I'm shoveling the storm has usually passed, the air is actually quite warm and clean and the hard work is invigorating.
Although the white style of snow does not leave a sweet taste in my mouth for the most part, the other Snow in my life has a very pleasant connotation. In fact, I like it so much that it became the name of my firstborn son! Down in Southern Utah just north of St. George, there is a State Park named, Snow's Canyon. Yep! Connections! My dad's side has that name flowing in his blood.
Grandma Afton is the oldest SNOW I know alive. Now stooped with age, she still exudes her trademark SPUNK. Grandma grew up in the days of the great depression. She LIVES the jingle: use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without! We are both the eldest sisters in our families, school teachers, duty bound, and even share the same body style.
Some memories I have are: When Caroline was born, Shauna and I spent time at Grandma's house. She took us to Snow's Ranch Market and we talked her into getting us some long flowing silky scarves. We raced around the ground packed basketball court singing from the top of our lungs, "Mamma's comin' home with a new baby sister!" Even now the melody vividly rings out in my mind! Over and over we sang as we danced with the scarves trailing behind us! We did it so much that Uncle Steve and Uncle Wayne took us on wheelbarrow races to get us squealing about something else!
Grandma is scared to death of lightning. It is rumored that she has been known to slide under the bed or hide under her blankets. (This of course is when she was an adult!)
Grandma loves to plant geraniums. She keeps a flower grow box along the length of her carport. She has been an avid gardener in her back yard alongside Grandpa. She has fruit trees and nut trees. These are all things to enhance the family food supply from the farm. She faithfully bottles fruit every year. She always put pineapple in the bottom of each bottle of pears. I've watched my uncles eat an entire quart of pears JUST to enjoy the treat at the bottom.
One day I was at Grandma's house and most of my uncles and even my own father jumped on top of Grandma and wrestled her out of her chair to the ground. I was SCARED spitless! What was going on? It turns out she had a charlie horse and they were just massaging her and trying to get her straightened out.
I'll NEVER forget the BUTTERMILK hugs! Grandma says, "Just come here a minute. Then she would get you in a tight squeeze! I MEAN TIGHT! She doesn't pussy foot around! We could only slightly audible the key phrase, "Buttermilk," by the end which brought the hug to an abrupt halt.
If you need a bit of advice, Grandma has a tidbit of wisdom tucked up inside her head that comes popping out as a jingle, or verse (many learned from childhood.) Grandma also had fun childhood books around (the kind that teach a moral along with a fun story). The Pokey Little Puppy lived at Grandma's house and was read to me so many times that I had it memorized. But that wasn't good enough! I had to have her read it again.
One time for Christmas, I finally found the perfect gift for Grandma. It was a very small figurine of a little girl holding an ice cream cone. It read: "I love you MORE than ice cream." That is hard to do, seeing how Grandma loved ice cream, but it was how I felt and still do!
Grandma has the best bag of blocks, and tinker toys. She is a frugal shopper and buys things that will LAST! You should check our her stash of "solid as a rock" - "metal" Tonka trucks - honestly built to span generations - EVEN THE HYDRAULICS! My kids now play with the very toys my dad played with as a kid!
My favorite cups to drink out of are found in Grandma's southwest cupboard. TIN - it makes cool feel COLD. There is nothing like getting a cold drink of water in Grandma's tin cups.
Enter Grandma's Christmas Day BRUNCH: Our family was always the LAST set of cousins to arrive to eat. Grandma still had bacon, sausage, eggs, toast and juice available. Grandma's tree was always set up on her desk in the South window next to Grandpa's chair. Real live - out of the drawer stockings were hung with a string and clothespins above the fireplace. I'll never forget the year that Uncle Steve got a bunch of coal in his! That was all it took for me to be whooped into shape!
No matter what - Grandma cares about what is going on in our lives! She takes time to listen! She is proud of us! She just plain loves us!
That's the Snow I love and always will!
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