December 11, 2017

All Snowed In

As far as the astronomical winter goes, it is supposed to begin only on 21st December. That’s the official day of winter…or Winter Solstice – the shortest day of the year.

Technically we are 10 days away from the official winter.  Sure it does get cold and mostly damp because it rains a lot out here in the land of the Dutch. Sometimes, we get hail.

Snow does happen though not a normal occurrence. When it does, it usually is sad, wet snow that disappears into the ground. Then it turns to a puddle of dirty mush.

Still, at this time of the year,  it would be too early to be snowing here in the Netherlands.

Or so we thought. 

The first drop of snow began last Friday and today, the entire country changed from Code Orange to Code Red. The whole of Netherlands has been snowed in, making the roads unsafe for driving and the skies unsuitable for flying. Trains were disrupted and numerous flights cancelled  – including my flight to London tomorrow where I was scheduled to be on for a last minute work trip.

Because of the severe condition, we did not commute and worked from home instead. We picked the kids up directly from school and cancelled their daycare as we may not be able to drive to pick them up from there.  

It was a good call else we’d be stranded god-knows-where and how. Winter has arrived hot cold and heavy:

Frozen leaves
Path yet to be trodden after the snowfall
Where does the road begin from here?
Watch the snow bombs, Papa!
There was a reason that the kids walked a few steps behind…

 

We have sneeuw…and lots of sneeuw! It’s wintery white everywhere and the kids didn’t care for the cold or the heavy snow falling on their faces. The ran around and threw snow bombs at each other and at their us. 

They laughed heartily, contagiously and relentless. They rolled snowballs to make snowman and they plodded around the snow with their Wellingtons, making little footsteps all across the snow-covered pathways. They slipped and fell on their butt, got all wet but continue to rock it out.

Ahh! Kids. So care-free and free-spirited.

They walked out bare-feet. With only their pajamas for a few minutes, they fixed the nose of their snowman with a cucumber (we ran out of carrots). 

They tilt their heads backward and tried to catch the falling snow into the mouths. They laughed and played and chased like there is no tomorrow. They haven’t discovered snow angel. yet.

We may have been snowed in and the weather may have been cold. But nothing warms the hearts faster than seeing crazy, playful kids who have never grew up with snow their entire life until now.

This has been one good day. We just roll with it!

Snow bomb for Mama!

 

 


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Comments
  1. Robbie Cheadle

    I also love snow, Ann, but I am glad I don’t have to work and live in it. It is lovely when you are just visiting for a short while. Looks like you had lots of fun and made some memories.

    • Oh yes, Robbie! We had some fun. And it’s something the kids would remember..fragments of their childhood.

      You don;t get snow where you are at?

      By now, it’has stopped snowing. No more snow..except the leftovers on the road. It’s annoying because then the road turns to ice and its slippery!

  2. We got a dusting of snow yesterday. Just enough to wet the roads and turn the green grass white. I can’t wait for the really big snow so we can build an igloo 🙂

    • You guys get a helluva snow over there! It must be such a novelty every year to be building igloo. And those are the kind of memories kids would live on. I bet if we ever are able to build an igloo, the kids would rather sleep in there than in their beds…!

  3. Trina

    The whole of the UK got snow apart from my area. London was hard hit (for London) so you might not of been able to get here anyway

    • That’s what I heard too. But apparently my colleagues managed to fly in and get into our office in central London. Though the airports man…CHAOS!!! I’m glad I didn’t go. I would have been stranded there – no train and nothing! That would be a disaster.

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