Snow Memories

All day as I looked out the window at work, I felt like we were in a snow globe with the snow blowing all around. But sadly, we got skipped over again in the snow accumulation part of the scene. I know I shouldn't complain, especially with my friends in the Northeast dealing with 10+ inches tonight.

I can count on one hand the number of snow days we got when I was growing up. Our town in NJ didn't use school buses (we were all within walking distance of the schools), but there were a few times that it snowed enough that the roads were bad enough that the teachers couldn't get to school. Those days were like gold!

One year in particular, I think it was 9th grade, my friend, Trish, and I were trying to finish up a big project for History class. We were working on it at my house the day before it was due and were going to have to put in some long hours to get it done in time. To our amazement, we got a big snowstorm that night and school was called off. Trish walked back to my house on our bonus day off from school and we were able to do an awesome job on our project with the extra time we had.

Another year in high school, I had spent the night at a friend's house and we got a huge dumping of snow that night. I had to walk home (only a couple of miles) in snow up above my knees and I'm sure I thought I'd done the proverbial "walk up hill both ways in the snow" by the time I got to my house!

As I was thinking about fun snow memories and I decided to pull out some snow pics of my favorite kiddos to give us all a smile.

January 2000 - Trying to catch a snowflake on his tongue!

January 2010 - "I can't move my arms!"

January 2010 - Sweet Cheeks

Winter 2011 - Bumbo Snow Baby

Maybe we'll see some snow accumulation before this winter is over. Or maybe the next time snow is in the forecast, I'll just drive east and see if I can find the snow on the plateau that the weather people are always bragging about!

Cousin Time!

In spite of the fact that I think my Milwaukee cousins ushered in this deep freeze (or maybe they came South to get some relief since their hometown has had temps well below zero), we had a great visit from Keith and Sarina and their friend, Summer.

Keith is one of my Dad's brother, Dean's, sons and Sarina is Keith's daughter, born just a couple of months after Daniel in 1995. Sarina and Summer are friends from high school and now room together and attend the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

Thankfully, when the cousins arrived in town on Saturday, the weather was sunny and (relatively) warm, especially to them, so we took the opportunity to show them around downtown Nashville and went up on my favorite look-out spot, the Pedestrian Bridge. For dinner, we gave them a taste of Nashville at the Loveless Cafe and then the three of them went out to see the Opryland Hotel in all its glory.

 On Sunday before the weather got bad, Keith, Sarina and Summer went to the Belle Meade Mansion and drove around while I was taking Daniel back to Knoxville. When I got back, everyone was watching the Green Bay vs. San Francisco play-off game (didn't have the outcome they had hoped). After the game, they were not deterred by the falling snow and plummeting temperatures, so off they went to get in line for a show at the Bluebird Cafe. If I had not been so tired from driving all day, I would have loved to join them for that.

We suggested that they might want to spend some time indoors on Monday (coldest day in almost two decades) at the Country Music Hall of Fame. In the evening, we all met back up and had dinner at Chuy's and got to have more time to visit.

Since our family did not grow up living close to each other, it is an even more special gift that this generation of cousins has been able to keep in touch. We are connected on Facebook and also have begun to make time to visit in different locations as we can (sadly, some of those visits have coincided with family funerals). It was a great treat to get to see Keith and Sarina and Summer and we hope that we can make it up to Milwaukee to see them sometime in the near future.