Winter is here!

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish friends and readers! I hope to make jelly doughnuts today to celebrate. I used up all the potatoes over the weekend making latkes, which make my family swoon with joy.

We have a glorious snow here in Chicagoland today. It's been snowing all night long and we have about 6-8 inches of really light fluffy stuff that is still coming down. I don't live in a particularly rural area, so the kids still had school. Today we learned that neither of their boots fit, although the snowpants are fine. I promised to go out today and find the right sized boots. I am a procrastinator about stuff like that...

Witness the scene in the backyard. It's all white and still, and if I feel like lounging in it, we still have the hammock out. Indeed, I neglected to pick up the cushions from the patio furniture, so if we want to have a picnic, we can still do that too...


I do love the snow. We lived for a few years as transplanted midwesterners in San Antonio, Texas. We recall that period of our life as an adventure, but man, the weather stinks in San Antonio. It's hot practically all the time. We left there for West Michigan and when it started snowing the first time, we thought we were in heaven. Summers there felt like air conditioning compared to the Texas heat.

I get little butterflies of excitement about the snow. It's a beautiful blanket of quiet and the light seems to come from all around. I even like shoveling it, since thank goodness we have a short driveway, and I need the exercise. I can of course be thrilled about the snow since any driving I do will be optional. I hope the kids get to play outside at school. It can be pretty hard to get anything done when all the kids can think about is the novelty of new fluffy stuff outside.

SInce it's that time of year, I have to post this song which everyone has seen, but it's still fun: