They really look like that

I didn’t see snow until I was almost 19 years old, which is absolutely the reason I’m so enchanted by it. (Well, that and the fact that it never lasts longer than an afternoon or two before we’re back into the 70s. ) When you grow up in deep South Texas, Southern California, Florida, and the Philippines snow doesn’t really figure into your childhood. It’s a little bit of a mythical thing, like the Easter Bunny.

We used to cut out paper snowflakes like children everywhere, but I had no concept of what a snowflake really looked like until after I moved to Oklahoma during my sophomore year of college. (There was this boy…. no worries, I married him in the end.)

That first snowy morning, there was a just a hint of snow on the ground, but I ran out of my apartment absolutely giddy with delight. Snow! It glittered…and the absolute whiteness of it… there are no words for my wonder that morning. Even slipping on ice and landing in the slushy mud couldn’t dim my excitement.

And it’s still that way for me.

It started snowing this morning, and I couldn’t wait to be outside in it. I must have stepped outside a dozen times just before lunch. I stood there watching the white flakes land on my black sleeves and whispered to myself, “They really do look like that. They’re like little stars, and they really do look like that.”

My kids are made of less enthusiastic stuff, and watched their demented mother with the superior amusement that only children can know. I rushed back inside to show them the already melting flakes, and they raised eyebrows at my zeal. After a while I coaxed a few of these Texas/Okie babies outside and they shivered as their lips turned almost immediately blue.

“Mom,” my 5-year-old said, “I don’t think we’re made for the cold. Can I go back inside? I looks prettier from the other side of the window.”

He turned and trudged inside, just as the 7-year-old slid down the sidewalk to stand beside me.

“It’s like God is pouring sugar down on us isn’t it, Mom? It’s like magic.”

I hugged him as well as I could through his puffy coat, just in time to hear him whisper, “Wow. They really do look like that.”

**all photos copyright Elizabeth Pack Photography, used with permission (If you’re near Indianapolis, you should call her for pictures)