A winter secret

Before this spring weather really takes off, I feel like I need to get something off my chest.

I really like the snow.

I know,  I know. Some people hate it. Many people complain about it. It's a pain to drive in. It's bothersome to clean off your car before you have to drive in it. I understand all of this, but I still love it. It's just so magical. When else does beautiful, fluffy and sometimes sparkling stuff fall from the sky and stay for a while? What else can you go outside and roll around in, pack into balls, build into people (not just snowmen—Anna insists on making only snow girls), slide down, and eat (if it's clean)?

Nothing besides deliciously beautiful snow.

I've been thinking about how much I love snow ever since Anna and I checked out this book by Cynthia Rylant from the library a while ago. It was delightful. It covered the many different kinds of snow, the kind that "comes softly in the night like a quiet friend" or the kind that falls so "heavy [it buries] cars up to their noses." It talks about how nice it is to come inside after being out in the snow. The book celebrates how snow helps us notice the delicate limbs of trees and the special kind of snow that makes the whole world glowing pink, even when it's nighttime. See? Magical.

Because the snow melted so quickly down in the valley a month or so ago, we went up into the canyon to see if we could do some real sledding. I swear it was 1-2 feet deep in places, and they were not kidding when they came up with the song "Winter Wonderland." It was marshmallowy and gorgeous everywhere you looked.

Other things I love about the snow:

• The wearing of snow clothes makes it possible to go places you normally couldn't. As kids, my sister and I used to climb up and sit in/on the bushes by my house when we were playing in the snow, just because we could.
• It's a giant canvas. You can play fox and geese, and Anna and I also like to play giant games of Tic Tac Toe with our feet and sticks to draw with.
• We also experimented with different ways to paint on it a couple weeks ago. We used water and food coloring in a spray bottle and with paint brushes. (We had to hurry before it melted, as you can see in the pictures.)

Snow has many magical qualities and I don't care how much others hate on it, I love it. And judging by this last snowy attempt to thwart spring, today was a great day to post this. I know it's April when the snow should be done, but I wasn't over it yet.