I loved snow days when I was a child. Even though I loved school (yes, I was a nerd), I loved snow even more. On The Farm, we had the perfect sled riding hill, somewhat viewable in some recent pictures I shared with you. On Snow Days that didn’t make for horribly treacherous driving, my parents would occasionally let me host sled riding parties. The memories of those fun days stick with me even now. The wonder of a Snow Day. The laughter of teenagers whipping down a hill, forgetting to be too cool if only for a few minutes. The red cheeks as we all gathered in the living room for hot chocolate and 90′s music.
Ah, Snow Days.
But today I almost changed my tune to, “Bah!, Snow Days!”
BigBrother was supposed to return to school today after his two weeks of Christmas vacation. As much as I love the child, I needed him to go back to school today. Having him home for two weeks with the added interruption of holidays has left me with a huge pile of work to do. I had plans to not only do that work but do it well, hit the gym and maybe even have a special one-on-one moment with LittleBrother.
Then they canceled schools in our area.
My plans for the day went out the window and got lost in the swirling snow. Thankfully FireDad is home today (another bonus of fire life) and he was able to wrangle lunch and put the kids down for a nap. I’m trying to work and be generally productive but children keep asking me what button to press on their Leapster or ask, ever so cutely, to put a puzzle together and, dang it, that’s hard to say no to when they bat those super long eyelashes that they have both been blessed with thanks to their father’s genes. And so, it’s 12:44pm and I’m behind on my day’s goals.
And I’m kind of okay with that… mostly.
You see, once we found out school was canceled and we fed BigBrother his breakfast? Well, FireDad and I snuggled under the covers for a good hour until LittleBrother woke up. Then we fed him breakfast and snuggled a bit more, this time with two kids crawling all over us. Why didn’t I just jump straight into the workload I have?
It’s that Magic of a Snow Day.
It really is magical. Sure, I’m waiting desperately for return emails now and maybe even kicking myself a little bit but I’m figuring it is okay in the end. I’ll forever have that memory of the glorious light reflecting off the snow and shining into our (clean!) bedroom as two little boys climbed all over us while we pretended to be asleep. I love their laughter. And if the temperatures don’t drop too badly by the time (glorious) nap time is over, I hope we make a few more memories out in the snow. The gym can wait. That’s what Wii Fit is for. The work will get done. That’s what the hours after bedtime are for.
It’s a Snow Day.
These days of their childhood will pass by too quickly. My parents, who both worked outside the home, tried to make Snow Days a little magical for us. I hope to do the same for our kids. I hope to remember to keep things in perspective and not allow the worry of work and life to interfere with the Magic of a Snow Day. I hope that someday, maybe on their child’s first Snow Day, they can look back and say, “Remember when Mom and Dad did that one thing on that one Snow Day? Let’s do that with the kids today.”
Sled riding. Hot chocolate. Bird stalking. Magic, indeed.

Happy Magical Snow Day!
_
[Speaking of magic, we're giving away a $100 gift card to 1-800Flowers. Go enter!]