A RARE SNOW DAY
The first snowflakes began their descent at 09,19 this morning. As soon as I noticed them, I ran over to my son’s bed to awaken him. He in turn ran from his bed to the balcony doors in the main living area of our apartment.
‘Oh my God!’ he exclaimed. He couldn’t believe that we finally had snow. A rare occurrence in Austin. He took a photo and video, then crawled back under the warm duvet and told me to wake him up again in an hour.
I then went to the girls’ room to let my older daughter know that it was snowing. Her sister spent the night at a friend’s house so it was just her in the room this morning. Her response was quite the opposite of her brother’s.
‘Oh…yeah’. She was nowhere near awake and was definitely not impressed. She then went back to sleep.
The falling snow was a pleasant distraction. I sat on the sofa in front of the window in the living room and scrolled through photos on Instagram and worked on maintaining first place on the leaderboard in the Emerald league of Duolingo by continuously doing the XP ramp up challenge. Then I switched to reading my first book of the new year, ‘Garnethill’, a crime thriller by Denise Mina.
I finished the chapter I had started yesterday and kept watching the snowflakes gathering speed. In the meantime, my son had gotten dressed and was already outside enjoying the snowfall. As I was unable to keep my attention on what was happening in the Glasgow setting of the book, I instead went to the kitchen to start breakfast. The first buttermilk pancakes of the new year. As I gathered the ingredients and the three bowls, I kept my eye on the windows from the kitchen island.
By the time I had started mixing the ingredients, my older daughter had emerged from her slumber and asked to make whipped cream. As I was using the mixer she needed for making the cream, I let her know that I would call her when I was finished. She has taken over making whipped cream since at least a year now and has mastered it. After she made the cream, she posted a photo of breakfast on our group chat to let her brother know that breakfast was ready and to let her sister know that she was missing out on a favourite breakfast.
With the pancakes placed carefully on a platter, the strawberries cut, and the whipped cream made, we then sat down at the table and enjoyed our Sunday breakfast whilst keeping an eye on the snow falling through the glass of the balcony doors. It was already half past noon. The last time all of the children were here for our first Sunday breakfast at the beginning of the year, I made crepes. Both the pancakes and crepes are far from a healthy breakfast but are quite enjoyable.
After breakfast, we went our separate ways for a short while before my son decided to go out again to play in the snow and to walk over to his friends’ place at our old apartment building. As he was putting on my grey winter coat, there was a knock on the door. My neighbour donned a red snow jacket and layers of other clothing and wanted to go for a walk. I quickly dressed into my black workout legging and a thin black sweater. I’m glad that I brought in my ski jacket from the garage a few weeks ago. A jacket I last used in California before the children were born. The ski pants have yet to be located.
My son joined us on the walk for a while, at first making a snow angel and then stopping to collect the snow into one big snowball. I continued the walk with my neighbour, taking photos along the way with both my iPhone and DSLR. It has been a while since I regularly used my camera seeing the great challenge of downloading them onto a laptop that I purchased close to 14 years ago. My ThinkPad’s memory is limited and the laptop itself desperately needs to be replaced but it still somehow gives me the opportunities to write and transfer the occasional photo to be edited in Lightroom.
When I returned home after the walk, my camera bag was covered in snow, my hair was wet and icy, and I was cold. At one point I had slipped down a small incline from the sidewalk by the church parking lot. It was cold but also fun as it made me feel alive and wanting to go snowboarding in Colorado. It also made me remember my time in Edinburgh when it would snow and I would watch the snow falling from my holiday rental’s kitchen window.
All of the kids were out for most of the day. My older girl decided to venture outdoors, donning her sister’s new Hollister sweatpants, three sweaters, two different right-handed gloves that the neighbour dug out from her closet, my ski jacket, and ski boots which were also from my neighbour’s son. I guess it’s time to update our wardrobes to include cold weather clothing.
Saffron returned home before the sunset, having enjoyed the sledding with laundry baskets by the church with her friends whilst my son remained outdoors building a snowman and playing with his friends. Cinnamon decided to stay at her friend’s house longer and even went to another friend’s home with the first friend but returned in time for a late dinner.
Before Cinnamon came home, Saffron made sure I washed the sweatpants she borrowed from her sister. She also set about to clean their entire room, including the closet, and to clean their bathroom. She made everything look so nice, even lighting a candle in the bathroom so it would be nice when her sister returned. After dinner, Cinnamon once again begged me to go spend the night at another friend’s house at the apartment complex within walking distance. Seeing how school is cancelled tomorrow due to the weather, I did not find it to be too much of an issue. She had no problem walking back out in the cold but was met halfway by her friend and the friend’s brother.
The snow was a welcomed change from the strange weather of the past few weeks where it would be warm one day and freezing cold the next. It was also great as I did not need to worry as much about the cedar allergies which have kept me indoors more this year than last year. I look forward to next month when I can return to my morning walks and start running again.
