Snowflake Day

If you know Daniel Tiger, you understand the title. If you don't understand, buy a television and borrow a preschooler. You will soon learn that Daniel Tiger is an extenstion of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. It's a precious little show that uses the offspring of the Neighborhood of Make Believe to continue Mr. Rogers' legacy of teaching littles about kindness, sharing, acceptance, and other universal moral lessons. Little man has been a fan pretty much since birth.

The non-specific holiday episode is centered on Snowflake Day. Guess what happens on Snowflake Day. It snows! Which is exactly what happened this past weekend in Middle Tennessee.

Early Friday morning the sleet and freezing rain hit. It quickly turned to snow, and kept snowing for hours and hours. My northern friends will laugh and shake their heads with dismay, but we were positively buried in multiple inches of snow! Yes, inches. It's a big deal for us. The official total for Nashville was 8 inches. We saw 4-6 inches in our neck of the woods. It was beautiful!

We snuggled together in the apartment all day Friday. We kept the fire going, watched movies (Frozen felt appropriate.), drank hot chocolate, and played a few minutes in the negliable green space.

Our "yard" blanketed in snow.

YAY!!!! SNOW!!!!

By Saturday morning, we were ready to be at the farm. We ventrued out just before lunch. The main roads were clear south of town, and in no time at all, we were pulling in driveway at Harlenwood. There was still plenty of snow on the ground, and we couldn't wait to get out and play!

Didn't even let me get his hat on him before bolting into the snow!

Throwing snowballs at Mommy is apparently hilarious!

He ate snow ALL. DAY. LONG. We didn't even teach him to do that. He just did it.

If we lost track of him outside, it was always because he had stopped to munch.

Lots of pretty cardinals around.

Papa's barn.

Little boy tracks next to tractor tracks.

Guys, I get to live here soon. Just a bit excited about that!

Daddy is not a fan of the cold, but Little Man could stay out forever.

We will share the story of this stump soon. Isn't it pretty though?

Several years ago, before Little Man was born, my parents bought us a sled. Metal runners, wood slats, the real deal. Unfortunately, it is storage. Boo. But Little Man and I found a modest hill in Nana and Papa's backyard to roll down. It will be great for little people to sled on next year.

We spent the rest of the day cozied up to the fire, hanging out with Papa and eating snow cream. (Nana was in Florida for a David & Ashley's wedding.) It was so wonderful to relax with my family and marvel at the glorious beauty all around.

Church was cancelled Sunday because so many back roads were still treacherous. (Stop laughing, Yankees.) We woke up to brilliant sunshine and sparkling snow. Then, we saw them coming out of the woods. Gorgeous white-tail deer started walking across the front yard one by one. We can see evidence of a deer trail in the woods, and we often see 3 or 4 around twilight. Yesterady was different. We counted 16! Mostly does, but it looked like there was a button buck or two in the herd. They hung around for about twenty minutes, beofre making their way to the woods behind Nana and Papa's. Now that's the way to start the morning!

We played in the snow one more time and enjoyed another quiet day together. We headed back to the apartment before dark. Little Man was sad to exchange Harlenwood for the apartment. Only the promise of dinner from Jim 'n Nicks got him in the car. (Sometimes we resort to bribery.)

At least the dirve home was a pretty one.

Here's our recipe for SNOW CREAM!

4 c. fresh snow

1 c. milk (add more if needed to improve consistency)

1/4 c. sugar

1 tsp vanilla (the real stuff, not imitation)

Mix everything in a big bowl and enjoy!

Happy Snowflake Day, y'all!