Snow Day

 We had a great snow day today, and it started a little later than expected, but it did in fact happen with snow coming down early, and just transforming our yard and neighborhood into a winter wonderland.  I was up first doing some chores, like feeding those birds, who were quite excited to have food they didn't have to dig through the snow to get to.  I got plenty of pictures of the birds this morning.

And the house too.  We were outside, Maddie and I, just walking around and exploring.  And throwing snowballs at each other too.  Maddie and our neighbor across the street got into a bit of a snowball fight, but soon enough Maddie and I were making a snowman on the back deck.

This one was a little difficult to make, as the snow wasn't great for packing until a bit later on.  Initially, it was so powdery that it took a long time to assemble a simple ball.  But we were patient and got it all together.  Maddie says our snowman's name is Jeff.  He's similar to one we did a few years ago, in that we have him holding a small bowl that is filled with bird seed.

Maddie was out taking a few photographs with her 35mm camera, and she also used her polaroid camera today too.

The birds started to visit our snowman earlier this time around, and that was delightful.  

Afterwards, we did some of other other things on the snow checklist.  We made snow angels, of course, and there was time for sledding too!

I dragged Maddie all the way up the hill, down the hill, and up Forest Path just a tiny bit before turning around.  Maddie enjoyed that sleigh ride quite a bit.  And she also had fun doing something else outside today:

And there was a bit of taekwon-snow!  The bo staff was taken outside, and Maddie was using it for some practice.  She was out there with nunchucks and the staff, although her fingers were getting a little cold for that sort of thing.  

Anyway, it was a really nice Snow Day, and I put it in capital letters because this is now a somewhat rare event.  It's been a few years since our last significant snowfall.  The last time we personally got to "play in the snow" was at the top of Newfound Gap last winter.  Although that was more scenic, and maybe more scary, this was more fun - we got to check off the snow list:

____  MAKE SNOW MAN

____  HAVE SNOWBALL FIGHT

____ GO SLEDDING

____ MAKE SNOW ANGELS

____ PRACTICE MARTIAL ARTS SKILLS IN SNOW

The only thing we didn't do was make snow cream.  But we're fasting sweets, so that's okay.  It was magical out there, the snow covering the landscape and just adding this wonderful beauty.  You couldn't help but get out there in it and play some!  Before we move on, here are a few more pictures from our Snow Day:

The weather above was hovering just above freezing later on, so it was frozen rain for the last part of the day.  It's below freezing here on the surface, and that really kept things icy all over the trees and everywhere.  Big icicles were forming, and a glaze is covering the forest and houses here.  Power is going out in various places, but not here.  We had a brief flicker, and got our flashlights and candles ready just in case.  But the power stayed on.  So did the heat.

We warmed up and got a few things done this afternoon - there was still work to be done with KidPak.  In fact, I'll be working on that tomorrow a little more.  Snow Day was a big welcome interruption with that.  Early evening, we watched the final entry in our High School Musical marathon, "Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure."  One question is why they cut out the cameo that was included everywhere else - I mean, it was such a great moment.  We found it online somewhere still and watched that little post credits cameo later.  On the whole, the movie was fun.  We hadn't see it in a while, so none of us remembered exactly what it was about.  But yeah, that ends the High School Musical marathon, and just in time too.  Again, we were wanting to watch these while Maddie was in high school, so we got it done just in time!

We did our devotional time tonight after this, spending time with episode 2 of "The Chosen," and reading some devotional material, using guided questions and discussions.  And that was nice, of course.  

And after that, our movie of the night was "The Goonies," inspired by the recent viewings of "Skeleton Crew."  I loved watching this movie so much tonight, completely forgetting how good it really is.  It is so much fun, and the kids were so good in it too.  We watched that as we listened to everything freeze outside around us.  The power stayed true, and we're grateful for that.  We got upstairs did our reading, and after that, it was time for prayers and a good night's rest.  

It was a really nice snow day!