It’s been a fun, crazy week, with time in Doodles’ classroom, Adam’s office party, which–surprisingly–was really fun, a Hanukkah singalong at Pie’s school (preschool mosh pit! That girl loves to dance!), a night of cooking class, playdates, and all sorts of holiday prep goodness, including lots of baking, crafting (and I’ve become addicted to craft blogs lately–oh the ideas I have for next year!), and card writing. And then… then it all came to an end. Because…
…the snow has started. No quiet whispers into winter; it came in shouting its presence. Two days before the official beginning, we were pelted with snow. Fierce, fierce snow. Running on Friday morning, the sunrise was amazing, a fiery feast of reds in the sky, but then I remembered “Red skies at night, sailors delight; red skies at morning, sailor’s warning.” True enough in this case. I felt bad for Doodles who had a field trip canceled on Friday. Everyone had early releases in anticipation of the storm. I ran with my kids to the supermarket, along with the rest of the world and stocked up on supplies. Shabbat dinner for Friday. Snacks for Saturday. Milk for hot chocolate. Everything we needed. Everything. Oh, wait, except the toilet paper. I forgot the toilet paper. Oops!
That night the kids couldn’t wait to get out in the snow, so I bundled them up Friday evening to get their snow groove on. Nothing like the first trying on of winter boots to realize that they no longer fit. Doodles is a good size larger than his boot, but we managed to sausage his foot in. That night, we got about eight inches of snow, which would have been fine if that had been it.
Saturday morning I stupidly decided not to do my run, to save it for Sunday. Which meant, obviously, that Sunday was much worse. However, not knowing that, I had a lovely walk with Pie on the bike path so we could walk to Walgreens for toilet paper and new Color Wonder books. I did a bit of snow shoveling to unbury our cars. I got my hair done. Doodles got a new hockey hair cut so his hair no longer hurts his face. And then we stupidly decided–on a snowy day, the last weekend before Christmas–to brave L.L. Bean to get Doodles some new boots. What a freakin’ nightmare. And no boots in his size. So he’s going to have to suffer a bit longer. But overall it was a relaxing day, with all of us watching A Christmas Story (well, not completely relaxing–the bully in the movie terrified the kids). A lovely snow day.
And then there was today. One snow day too many. The snow started up again. And again. And again. Religious school canceled. Sleep didn’t happen last night as the toddler in the next apartment over is sick, and was up every hour from 3:15 till wake up time. I’ve got just over a month till I run Miami with my cousin, and I haven’t gotten enough mileage in. So in the sleet/snow/freezing rain, in the sub-freezing temperatures, a savage wind upon me, on the snow that feels like sand, except where it feels like ice, I managed to run 18 miles (it wasn’t quite uphill both ways, barefoot, but it was close). I’m cold. I’m beat. I’m tired. The kids want to go outside. I throw on a dry shirt. We head outside. Pie, in the hallway, sniffs her nose.
“Mommy, there’s something stinky in here!”
“I don’t smell anything, Pie.”
Pie puts on her biggest grin. “Mommy!” she says. “I think it’s you! You’re stinky!” Way to win points, Pie.
Tonight, the first night of Hanukkah, we went to friends’ for dinner. It was truly lovely, but I was so scared driving there and back. I was as tense as could be. Normally I’m the driver, but these days, it’s all Adam, because I refuse to drive in the snow. Trying to get out of our friends’ driveway at the end of the evening just about did me in, as our wheels spun and our car fishtailed. I just closed my eyes and Adam did a little digging and a little gunning and finally got us out. But, man, does that terrify me.
Part of me is really hoping school isn’t canceled tomorrow as it’s Pie’s last day before the winter break and I’m supposed to go into Doodles’s classroom to make latkes with them, but part of me is terrified to go out there–it’s supposed to turn to rain soon, which means it’ll be a sheet of ice out there–so part of me hopes it’s canceled so we can stay inside the entire day. Hey, the kids got some presents tonight–they’ve got stuff to play with. And I’m not above a day of PBS Sprout, if that’s what’s called for.
Meanwhile, as hard as it is to imagine, I’m supposed to go to our storage this week to pull out our summer clothes for our annual pilgrimage to Miami. I can’t fathom being ready. I can’t fathom getting our car out of here. I can’t fathom ever being out of this tiny apartment and back in our house (although we’re giving our 60 day notice on the apartment this week). I can’t fathom a place that isn’t buried in snow. I can’t fathom that we’ve been here since it was shorts weather. I can’t fathom. Period. I’m going to bury myself in bed. Maybe tomorrow I’ll wake up with a fresh dose of fathom.
