Shortly after I read the prompt, snow, for ’twas the write before Christmas, tiny gentle snowflakes started drifting down from the sky. So softly were the flakes falling that it was a few minutes before Lily and Emmy noticed. As soon as they looked out the big bay window in our living room as we were getting ready to leave for school, they both started yelling, “IT’S SNOWING!” and began jumping up and down.
When we went outside, the flakes were getting fluffier. When snow is falling from the sky, the girls’ first instinct is to open their mouths and try to catch an icy crystal on their tongues.
But the day was just too warm for snow. Soon the snow changed into rain, and the streets and sidewalks were wet, not white.
Our fall in Chicagoland has been very mild this year; perhaps it is because our winter last year seemed so long, so cold and so snowy. We even had a real–and I mean real—blizzard on my birthday last February. We had so much snow that by the time Spring came around, I was ready for balmy breezes and warm sunshine. Whether we were swimming in the pool or playing on Lake Michigan beaches, paddling in a tippy canoe or getting sprayed by Niagara Falls, we soaked up summer. When autumn came, we relished the cooler air and lingered at the playground.
But now, now it’s time for snow again. December. The weather is cold; the clouds are gathering. Before long, snow will fall again, and this time, it will stick. It will accumulate and need to be shoveled. It will need to be gathered into snow balls, rolled into snowmen and swished into snow angels.
We’re ready.
