LOVE, FAMILY AND SNOW

I hope that everyone had a great Valentine's/President's Day weekend.  I took a few days off to spend some quality time with the family.   Today's post has nothing whatsoever to do with politics, for a change.  No offense to our Presidents, but today I want to focus on something even more important.  Love and family.

My husband and I were raised in the Northeast, but our children have been born and raised in Florida.  We have been wanting to take them to see snow for a few years now.  This year, however, our oldest turned 13 and soon snow won't be such a fun thing for her, so time was of the essence.  We tried to get some time over the holidays to make a trip, but things kept popping up (namely, I was called for jury duty).  So when we heard that there would be snow as far south as southern Georgia this past weekend, my husband and I decided to go for it. 

We took the kids out of school early Friday, packed up the car and hit the road. 

We drove north until we hit snow, then drove a little further until there was decent accumulation.  By this time it was about 9:00 at night.  We pulled off the highway and parked at a rural gas station and bundled the kids up and set them loose on the snow.

They had no idea what to do, aside from pelt each other with 'snowballs' (loose handfuls of snow), so my husband, a Syracuse native who knows his way around snow, helped them make a snowman and snow angels.  We even bought some plastic lawn and leaf bags and showed them how to use them as sleds to go down the hills. 

Needless to say, the kids were absolutely thrilled and had a great time.  Once their feet were good and frozen, we got some hot cocoa and changed into dry clothes and headed home. 

My youngest documented the trip with her camera, even down to video of the storm front as we headed into it.  It was a great day and a really wonderful memory for all of us.  Sure, it was about 9 hours of driving for just one short hour in the snow, but it was worth every minute.  It is a priceless memory and I will carry the image of their happy faces with me always.

The weekend ended on a truly joyous note.  We joined my sister at her boyfriend's restaurant for a family Valentine's Day dinner and ended up witnessing her engagement!   I am just thrilled for Kathy, and am so happy that Kevin, intrepid individual that he is, is willing to join our crazy family.  He is a wonderful man who makes her so happy that she glows with it, and I thank God that they found each other, and I wish them many, many happy years together.

It was a weekend filled with laughter, love and family.  I shut off the news and ignored the lure of the internet.  I have a lot of catching up to do, but it was worth it.  I find myself so caught up in the machinations of the political world sometimes, and it is nice to take a break and recharge.  The broad view of the world right now is so depressing and uncertain that forgetting about it for a little while and spending time in my own little world with the people that I love so very much has become even more special and important. 

To my beloved husband, my darling Joe, I say thank you.  Thank you for a great weekend, thank you for fulfilling my crazy whim to chase the snow, thank you for our children, and thank you for loving me through thick and thin.  Thank you for supporting me and my out-of-the-blue, sometimes boring, sometimes manic political obsession of the past two years.  Thank you for being such a wonderful, loving father and supportive, patient spouse.  As a wise man once said, "The world is in your eyes, the sun, the stars, the skies go tumbling, whenever you are near".

LOVE, FAMILY AND SNOW