On snow

I really don't care for the cold, but I don't mind snow. Some dread the twenty inches of snow currently inhabiting their Omaha yards - but not me, I kind of like it. I particularly like taking out my much too large (unless you have five kids) Ford Expedition and driving over big snowy lumps in the road. I hope none of them are igloos or inhabited my small woodland creatures.

I also like sending my little kids into the backyard with the sole purpose of losing Star Wars figures in the Hoth like landscape that is the five foot high drifts in our backyard. Today after about a week of play - these drifts have little 4 and 6 yr old outlines cut into them from the brave ones breaking free of their snowy prisons.

In addition, I like watching snow fall. I think the peek out your window from behind the blinds to see if it has snowed or is snowing is an anticipatory moment that every person should receive. When I was a child, that look was the moment of truth regarding school. And today, it is the moment of truth regarding how early I have to get up to shovel. But over the holidays, its just one more great reason to sleep just a little bit later.

My kids have been sledding a couple of times in the last couple of weeks, and two weeks ago, I joined them. I do not remember what I thought when I was eight - plunging down the hill at Prairie Lane School - but I am fairly certain that I was not considering the co-pay options on a broken ankle caused by catching my boot on an outlying snow barnacle. So maybe some of the joy is gone from sledding...but I still have the Expedition.