January 6, 2014

     Today was supposed to be our first day back to school after Christmas break, but the dangerously frigid air is giving us one more day (possibly two) to kick back and relax.  It is pretty rare in this area for the school district to do this, so we really appreciate it when it happens.
     The wind blows wickedly from the southwest and whips around the corners of the house with a most formidable sound.  I can only imagine how it would sting the only part of my face that would be needed to be uncovered to see where I am going.  With each breath I would taste the coldness of winter.  Any scent of winter would be frozen before I could even identify it.

       I slip back in time to the school playground where we always went out to play King of the Mountain on the huge snowy hills that lined the edge of the parking lot.  I remember eating a homemade chocolate chip cookie out of my mittened hand and deciding that it tasted even better with the frozen air as a complement.  I loved every part of winter as a child. It now takes an effort to enjoy something that was once so effortless.   That feeling is lost so quickly as we get old enough to drive in the slippery conditions and risk our lives as we do so or fear falling instead of sliding with happiness across a patch of ice.