Snow Day!

Snowmageddon.  Snowpocalypse.  Snowtorious B.I.G.  SnOwMG.  Call it what you want - I call it awesome.

Living in South Carolina for four years, I didn't think I missed the cold Michigan winters.  I was happy to banish my winter gloves and hats and marshmallow-man coats to the closet, dusting them off occasionally when we got the rare cold snap.  I loved calling family and friends in January and casually asking about the weather.  Oh really?  I'm actually wearing flip flops.  I think we might need to turn the air conditioning on.  I had myself convinced that I had become a true Southerner, wincing at the thought of any temperatures below fifty and wearing sweatshirts and shivering in seventy-degree weather.

That all changed when we packed up our little family and moved back home.  I can remember the day we had to make our final decision.  Anna was maybe four weeks old, and Mike and I were both still shell shocked from lack of sleep and the fact we were parents.  We were making pro and con lists, charting out reasons for staying, reasons for moving, assigning point values, all in hopes of figuring out the right thing to do.  Ultimately, I think we went with our hearts, but it was far from an easy decision.  And on that January day, it was in the sixties, with blue skies and fluffy white clouds, and we were meeting friends for a walk.  As we loaded Anna into her stroller, we looked at each other and were like, "Are we totally crazy?"

I think as soon we we crossed that Michigan state line, we got our toughness back.  We unpacked our snow boots and sleds with glee and embraced the cold, wet, nastiness that is winter.  The first time the thermometer reached seventy?  You know we were in our bathing suits, doing a happy dance.  (Well, it was probably more like sixty, but who's keeping track?)

So I love a day like today.  I know that I didn't have any where to be, no school getting canceled or missed appointments.  I probably wouldn't have left the house anyway.  But it's the perfect excuse to crank the fireplace, stay in our pajamas all day, and bake cookies while we watch the snow fall and the winds gust.  And it's the best reminder that even though we miss Greenville and the friendships we left behind and the balmy weather, our family is right where it needs to be.

A true Michigan girl

Cedella & Anna: Snow Bunnies

The snowshoeing dream has finally become a reality!

Our partners in snowshoeing crime - Michael, Alexia, and Cedella