Winter Games

Here is the mascot for Gainesville's Winter Games, built today by Madison, Daddy and Mommy. This was actually the first snowman that Madison helped build, and it was pretty easy to put together because the snow was packing so well.

It finally happened - about three o'clock or so, the snow started sticking really well, and Daddy had to come home. Work offices closed, as did pretty much everything in Gainesville, as is custom whenever it snows! The funny thing about this snow was that weather forecasters sort of missed it as well. Only a dusting or maybe an inch or two was predicted, but as shown in this picture of Madison helping Daddy assemble a snowman, the accumulations were somewhat heavier where we were. This probably means it snowed even more elsewhere north of here, which makes plans for the weekend tricky to say the least. For example, we've made the difficult decision to cancel our trip to the Chinese New Year festival tomorrow because we would have to leave early in the snow and ice. Lots of water on the ground makes for lots of frozen roads earlier, so we'll play it safe and skip it this year.

Fortunately, we've also been invited to a later celebration in March with the FCC (Families with Children from China). Hopefully the weather will be much better for that.

Anyway, back to the snowman. Mommy helped us create this snowman too. She brought out carrots and small stones to use for the eyes and mouth. Daddy held Madison up so she could insert the facial features where they should go, and I'm rather proud to say we didn't wind up with a Picasso Snowman: Madison put everything where it should go. Finally, Mommy put a hat on top of our snowman, and found some arms to place on his sides. Soon, he was standing guard in the front yard, watching over us as we got involved in our winter games. Madison began to instinctively make snowballs, something I imagine is more of a genetic trait than an acquired skill. One wonders when the first snowball was thrown at someone, and what an amazing historical occasion that must have been!

As you probably have suspected, when Ye-Ye and Nana got home, the snowballs started launching! Madison had fun chasing them about and hurling more snowballs as the snow continued to fall. In fact, it still is falling as I type, guaranteeing even more snow games tomorrow. This winter storm system has been called Snowpocalypse, and until now, everyone well north of us has been going through easily the strongest series of winter storms in a long, long time. Finally, it caught up with us down here - the snow you see in these photos is probably the most snow we've ever gotten while living in this house. Quite a bit!

Again, the snow was not predicted to be that much at all initially. But we're happy they were wrong this time, because we've had a lot of fun. Above you can see Madison going for the sled event at the Winter Olympics. Ye-Ye is playing the role of ski-lift, dragging Madison up the hill in a cardboard box that formerly contained a guitar. It's a makeshift sleigh, and a great time for Madison, who just loved sliding around on the snow.

Big smiles as she slid down the driveway and the snow-covered hills. Madison stayed out there in the white stuff a long while and had such good fun. But soon it was time to get inside and warm up in the bathtub. Mommy served up some warm soup and delicious dinner, which Madison gobbled up very quickly.

Tonight, the Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver. The last Olympics, of course, were in Beijing. When we were in Beijing, they were busy preparing for the opening ceremonies, and when we came home, we watched much of the games that took place - and the incredible opening and closing ceremonies. We'll be watching many of the events on the internet over the next few weeks with Madison, but today and tomorrow, it was fun to actually be a part of the Winter Games!