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:

 

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!