Snow day

Like many 5 year olds, Julia is fully entranced by the concept of magic and by the idea of granted wishes. She and her friends bestow magic powers on rocks to give them super strength on the playground, and here at home, she keeps a wish book in which she writes her fondest hopes and dreams. The wish book is her own secret possession and I'm not privy to its contents (the few entries she's shared with me say things like "I wish I could have ice cream every single day"), but I would be surprised if at least one of her wishes didn't have something to do with snow.

Julia's been looking forward to the first snow of the year for months. She absolutely loves the sledding and snowball fights that come with white winter weather and waits anxiously each year for its arrival. We've spent the past few months smiling and nodding and wondering aloud when it might happen right along with her. We just didn't have the heart to tell her that it almost never snows in London.

A few weeks ago, all of our deception and subterfuge kind of paid off. We found ourselves unexpectedly able to celebrate Julia's first snow of the season after all when we woke up to a light dusting of snow on the trees and the streets, the first that London had seen in recent memory. Julia was ecstatic, convinced that it was the beginning of a season full of snow and fun, despite the fact that there was barely enough of the white stuff to pinch between two fingers. We finally felt like we had to level with her, and so we explained that it was unlikely that enough snow would ever fall here for us to build a snowman or even form a snowball. She was naturally disappointed, but we felt a little better for having told her the truth. At least we wouldn't have to field any more questions about whether we'd remembered to bring the sleds to London or why we hadn't purchased new snow boots this year.

And then we all woke up today to this:


School was canceled because no one in London knows how to drive in such a thick and driving blizzard and so once we finished laughing at those silly snowphobes, we got down to business and had ourselves a good, old fashioned snow day.

The kids frolicked in the snow...


...built a lovely snowman (meet Mr. Snowlobitz)...


...had a giant snowball fight...


...and even attempted to create snow angels (these do not turn out so well on city sidewalks, I'm sorry to report).


As snow days go, we had the whole kit and kaboodle today, right down to the hot chocolate and board games and mittens drying on the radiators. I'm sure tomorrow I will be cursing the remains of the snow as I struggle to push a stroller around town, but for today, it was nothing but fun.

In New Jersey, this would probably have been at best a trying day. I would have had to shovel the driveway and deal with other cold weather hassles, and I no doubt would have bitched mightily about the school administrator who chose to shut down school for such a light snowfall. But here in London, where it "never snows"? Well, Julia wasn't the only one whose belief in magic was reaffirmed today. Maybe I'll even get myself a wish book. You know, just in case.