Snow Days

“Snow provokes responses that reach right back to childhood.” ~ Andy Goldsworthy

I remember as a kid waking up to huge white flakes falling down and my mom telling me I didn’t have school.

It was a snow day!

The giddiness I felt at something that was so decadent especially for a Mountain town where driving around in blizzards was like any other sunshine filled day. We were tough. We could handle anything. So to have a rare day off was a real treat.

My mom would bundle me and my two older siblings up in our colorful Rugged Bear snow suits and send us outside to play. While she was a bit more cautious with the temps calling us in at noon to make sure we were warm before shoving us out again, instead of the hot summer days where we wouldn’t see her until sunset.

My siblings and I would sled down makeshift hills in our huge back yard, and make forts with tunnels, and what we thought of as secret passage ways. We would have snow ball fights and occasionally our oldest brother would even take us for a ride on his snowmobile.

We would then run inside as the sun began to set after round two, laden down with snow, and anticipating hot chocolate and marshmallows. And maybe if my mom had put a pot out, snow with real maple syrup. Our very own natural “Snow” Cone.

As I got older, Snow Days became few and far between, though ironically I seem to have one on my first day of my spring semester every year. (Thank you Mother Nature?)

Just as when I was a kid, I eat it up, literally sticking my tongue out to catch a snowflake or two. When I was home in New Hampshire, it was the first year we had a white christmas in at least five years if not more. Lucky for me it literally seemed to snow.

While I selfishly wished it would snow in New York, with all the storms missing us, I did soak it in when I was in New Hampshire.

Luckily the Snow Gods decided to grace me with their presence three days after I flew back.

What a Winter Wonderland it was!

Despite the icy wind, I donned my Sorrels and my Michael Kors Canada Goose-esque knock off, and ventured out to explore my Upper East Side hood.

My first stop was Starbucks, so I would have something warm to hold, and then I walked the four blocks over to Carl Shurz Park.

At times, visibility was low, but it was so worth it. Kids were sledding down the hill by Gracie Mansion, and I even saw a couple kids attempting to snowboard. I guess it is what you do when you are in the city.

Everything was shades of white, black and gray, I didn’t even have to use any filters on my camera as I explored and snapped away. I felt like a kid in a candy store. It wasn’t a snow day by any means, but as the first snowfall in the city, it was as good as.

Not only was I channeling my inner child, but I was also experiencing the city through a different perspective. It felt like the snow was bringing the kid out in all of us. Giving a bit of childlike fantasy to an otherwise fast paced world. The shoveling, maneuvering, and snow turning to black grit, could wait another day. In that moment we were all just taking it in.

Yup the magic of snow days whether official or unofficial was still there. And while today I am counting down to Spring, or better yet summer, I can’t help but smile a little, because you are never to old to taste some snow…Or better yet to have a snowball fight.

How do you spend snow days?