Winter officially arrives today. The winter storm that dumped on the east coast over the weekend setting record snowfalls for December from Virginia to Long Island has caught the kids attention.

Why? We’re heading up to the winter wonderland this week for our annual Christmas break.

Each year we rotate the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday’s with the kids Grandparent’s. Not that we have anything against Mema and Papa (we spent time with them over Thanksgiving) – but Christmas never really “feels” like Christmas in South Georgia. While Pittsburgh may not always have snow during this time of year, there’s always colder temperatures with warm fires, and lots of hot chocolate.

As we visit and enjoy this time with our family, I’ll be taking a break from writing this week. I do have something scheduled to post Christmas morning, which I think you’ll enjoy. Other than that…playing in the snow and spending quality time with family will consume the next week and a half.

Of course you can’t have snow, without some sledding (which we have a perfect spot for) and a good old fashion snowball fight. The big thing this year has been “My Face LOL” videos that have been going around – and I’ve caught the bug. I did one of these last week, but took some additional head shots of the family and recreated the following video. Brian, our son has taken the prize for best “face” in the family and has won the staring roll as Santa, with Brittany, Ronda, and I taking supporting roles as elf’s.

Enjoy!

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You probably know that I grew up in Pittsburgh. Growing up there, we had our share of snow and snow days. Since the move to Georgia back in 1992 I found two things to be true. Marrying a true “Southern Bell” was the best move I ever made, and two, the winters down here are drastically more mild than they are up north.

That doesn’t mean that we don’t get occasional snow down here, and for our two kids, who don’t get to see snow but once a winter, (if that) it’s a very special treat. The excitement of seeing snow in our two children is a sight to behold as March came in like a lion yesterday when over two inches of rain two days prior, turned into “the white stuff” late yesterday morning.

The anticipation started when snow was actually forecast on the weather channel and we saw video from Birmingham, Alabama with Doppler radar tracking the system with a big fat bulls eye on the Atlanta area. Just as soon as the kids saw the news the winter jackets were found, along with hats (which I absolutely love!) gloves, scarfs, and boots. (They had forgotten cloths at the time however as they were still in their pajamas.)

At the very first sight of snow, they wanted to go out to make a snow man, but with a snow rain mix, none of it was even sticking to the ground yet. It was all we could do to hold them inside until the mix turned to all snow. When it did, the snow produced some of the biggest flakes I’ve ever seen. I wish I could have gotten a picture of just how large they were, but even my professional camera with adjustments to shutter speed couldn’t accurately produce the size I was seeing with my own eyes. I was however, very surprised at the quality of pictures my new iPhone was able to produce and uploaded several shots directly to flickr account.

Snowballs were actually more like “slush balls” and when they hit, it was extremely heavy and very, very wet. Sledding was not what the kids would have liked as well due to how wet the snow was. (If you can call using a boogie board that’s intended to be used for surfing as sledding.) That wetness however has changed overnight to solid ice on the roads this morning and ice happens to be a more frequent problem here than actual snow. (I can handle driving in snow, but ice is a completely different animal.)

We did have a chance to build a snow man, several as a matter of fact as the heavy snow tended to collapse the bottom due to the weight. I have to hand it to my son though, he figured out all on his own that if you make balls smaller, he could still make a three tiered snow man that would stand up to the heavy weight on top.

For sure, they’ll want to try again today and they’ll have a chance to as most of the schools are closed for the day. They don’t know it yet as they’re still sleeping. (They were up late waiting to hear if schools were closed.)

Ahh to be a kid again and enjoy this mess. Truth be told, I enjoy it too. Most of the enjoyment however comes from seeing the look in my kids eyes and how they still beleive in miracles, which to them, that’s exactly what all this is.

After all it IS a “snow day”!

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