Snow Day

We woke up to a beautiful snowfall this morning. Well, I actually woke up to Guillermo saying: "Mom, look outside." I was exhausted from last week's lack of sleep and my head was stuffed up from a cold he gave me. I put on my best face and looked out the window anyway. It was perfect. The ground was blanketed with soft snow, while fluffy clouds of snow covered the tree branches in the forest behind our house. 

"Let's go play," Guillermo whispered. 

"Are you kidding?" I thought as I looked at my clock, 6:37 a.m. 

We finally made it outside around 9 a.m. It was beautiful, but that was about it. Getting my kids dressed  to play in the snow is not fun, especially when we don't have the proper gear. I made them both wear two pairs of mittens because we don't have any waterproof pairs. Guillermo, who is 5, forced himself into a pair of size 3T snow pants, but only for the second time we went outside. I forgot we had them when we went out in the morning and thought Guillermo would be fine in just a pair of fleece pants (I was wrong!) We don't have snow boots so they wore their rain boots. I wore an oversized fleece jacket (I can't believe I ever thought this coat fit me!) and a pair of rain boots I bought in Texas when I was covering floods. Despite the gear (or lack thereof) we stayed out for an hour in the morning and went back out in the afternoon for another hour or so and the kids had fun. We had a snowball fight and then I pulled them around the house in their sled. We went to the park and played for awhile and then headed back in when the cold suddenly and instantly became too much for Guillermo in the morning and his friend, Charlie, in the afternoon. 

I've resolved that next year, despite the fact that we get snow usually just once a year, and this year twice, and that it lasts no more than a few days, I will buy snow pants and waterproof gloves for my kids. And, maybe, just maybe if I can find them on sale, I will buy them winter boots. 

And watch, it won't snow at all.