False Advertising

Our first winter in Wilmington, the temperature only dipped below freezing on about three mornings.  I proudly told people that this was why my husband wanted to move south.  Last winter is a complete blur, but I know there were more than three mornings below freezing.  And from what I hear, it normally only snows every other winter here, but we actually got two snows with accumulation last year.  Crazy!

And then there is this winter.  Holy cow, it's like real winter!  Which, to be quite honest, I am mostly enjoying.  We've had numerous days where our highs have stayed in the 40s, and a few days with highs in the 30s.  I've been able to wear sweaters that have been in storage since we left Ohio.  (Granted, they are mostly out of style, and they look a little odd on my body post babies, but let me just enjoy the itchiness of the wool!  It's given me a whole "new" wardrobe!  It is such fun!  I am such a dork!)  And there is something wonderful about a warm, cozy bed piled with blankets.  I love snuggling down, even when I know that at any second I will have to respond to the screech of one of my offspring.  There's always the hope that THIS will be the night EVERYONE sleeps through the night.  It could happen...

Last Friday's forecast called for rain turning to snow over night with accumulation of 1 - 4 inches.  I wrote off the forecast figuring I would believe it when I saw it.  Apparently most people took it seriously.  I had the misfortune of being in Walmart on Friday afternoon attempting to do a regular shopping while everyone else was preparing for the apocolypse.  And Valentine's Day.  It was...an experience.  Thankfully, the kids weren't with me, so I navigated as best as I could, stuck to my weirdo organic products that were in stock, and caught up on my check out line reading.  Did you know that Brad and Angelina are back together this week and trying to make more babies after just last week they were apparently broken up and he was trying to get back with Jennifer?  Crazy stuff, I tell you.

The temperature dropped and dropped on Friday, and it was actually below freezing when the precipitation started.  Shortly after tucking in the kids for bed, Jeff called me to the back door.  We looked out, and our backyard was covered in white.

It actually snowed all night, and this is what we found on our back porch in the morning.

The rest of the back yard.  It's hard to believe we're only a couple of miles from the beach!

Of course we had to take the kids out to play in it.  I am fairly certain we spent more time bundling the kids than we did playing in the snow.  After hating it last year, Ree did like the snow this year.  The snow was perfect for packing, and she discovered she could make snowballs.  And she threw one at Leon's head.  Fortunately, he thought it was hilarious.  (He always has been odd like that.  He must have fond memories of Michael beating him up in utero.) 

Jeff and I both assumed Michael would love the snow and Leon would want to be held, but it turned out that Leon was much braver.  Michael spent the entire experience sitting, mostly on a blanket.  It didn't help that with their heavy winter coats on, both boys looked like Ralphie's little brother Randy from A Christmas Story.  Their arms pretty much went straight out sideways in the shape of "T"s.  After sitting on the blanket for awhile, Leon got brave, touched the snow, then crawled off the blanket to explore it more.  (He had already discovered that he could not walk in snow up to his knees.)  Unfortunately, he suddenly found himself in an untouched patch of snow which was 4 or 5 inches deep, and he panicked.  He had no idea how to get back to the safety of the blanket island.  At that point everyone was about done in the snow, so we headed back inside.  We made Ree hot chocolate which she loved, as soon as it was nice and cold.

Less than an hour later, Jeff noticed the sky clearing, and we ended up having a beautiful day, punctuated by the constant sounds of dripping snow.  

We still had some snow on Sunday morning, but by last night, it was almost all gone.   And today I walked across campus for a work meeting wearing just a t-shirt and blazer.  The snow was wonderful, but I'm pretty sure that's the weather I was promised when we moved here.