I really get disappointed when we have no snow on the ground for Christmas, I’m not talking 8-10 inches but 2-3. just enough to help the lights shimmer, give the sleds something to glide on and the kids who got bikes to wish it away. The building of snowmen and snow forts, battles with snow balls, the opportunity to show your skills on the outdoor rinks or fall on your bottom. Finding that special sledding hill and challenging those to see who would go farthest, taking that challenge to stand up all the way down and find new, inventive ways of breaking bones. Never feeling the cold until you go in with mom telling you to get those wet things off, there’s hot chocolate to be had. As we get older and have to deal with snow rather than play in it we lose the focus of what joy it once brought and the fascination it shares with our children, I actually felt sorry for the kids down south, how dull there Christmas must have been and I imagine there was a feeling down there of what is wrong with those kids up north outside freezing. Lastly there was a certain bonding with my dad when I was old enough to help with the clearing, dad would grumble through out the process plus instruct me proper method but in the end we were doing something together. What was a nuisance to him brought great joy to me, we were a team.