Dec 08 2009
Snow Day
We got our first snow in Maryland, and it was quite a pretty one! My dear friend Vicki and I had made plans earlier in the week to go over to Takoma Park to attend a free yoga class taught by our friend Kath. We all graduated from the teacher training program together, and now we are able to attend each others’ classes. It is a joy! As Vicki and I drove down towards the city, the snow flakes grew in size – like cotton balls falling from the sky. It was lovely!
We grabbed some breakfast at a local diner, and had a little time to spare before we went to yoga – so Vicki and I pulled out our knitting. She just took up knitting and she is learning so fast! Such even gauge and stitches! I told her she would be knitting sweaters in no time 
…as Vicki worked on her lovely Noro scarf, I worked on (surprise!) Olympics sweater sleeves… lots of progress to show on that front, so more later…
In the meantime, as a celebration of my first snow day this winter, I wanted to do a little contest: Tell me your favorite snowy memory and have a chance at this prize:
Classic Elite 9103: Snow Day pattern booklet – sweaters, cardigans, vests, hats, scarves! all to keep you warm and toasty on your own snow days! (You can see all the patterns inside here)
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So, tell me a story about your snow-covered memories: building a snowman, sledding, ice skating, snowball fight – anything! I would love to hear! …and then you have a chance to win!
We used to live in Steamboat Springs, CO. My favorite memory was the first time my husband taught me to snowboard. We went up to this secluded area, it was snowing, and just so beautiful. I fell in love with Colorado then!
Unfortunately, I don’t have many good “snow day” memories. I have cold urticaria, which means I have an allergic reaction to the cold (I get big nasty hives – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_urticaria). As such, I have never made a snowman, snow angels, never been skiiing, and generally miss out on the “fun” part of winter. And I have to dress warmer than most people, even here in Texas.
But, I do have some fond memories of watching other interact in the snow. Most notably, a dog I had throughout most of my childhood LOVED the snow, and I used to love watching him play from the window. Sometimes I’d be able to get out long enough to throw snowballs at him, which he tried to snatch out of the air. But he would root around in the snow, and howl (and he had the best howl). While I was sad I couldn’t play with him, I did greatly enjoy watching his excitement when the snow would start falling.
Coming from a tropical country, I can just imagine how it feels like to knit in winter with the snow falling all round you. I love the yarn that VIcki is knitting with, the blue is just so beautiful – what sort of Noro is it? Sorry to bother but I love reading and admiring your photos on your blog
My parents worked really hard when I was growing up to earn money to take care of their three kids. So this is by means a jab at any deficient parenting. But they let me go out in the snow in jeans! And I mean, rolling and running around in 3 feet of snow in jean. I remember playing to my heart’s content when I was about 6 or 7 and then realizing that I was SO FREAKING COLD! I looked down and my jeans were frozen! As an adult, I am now very careful about what I wear in the snow, and own lots of insulated clothes and synthetic fibers.
Living in eastern Canada I’ve had lots of snow days in my life. My favorite memories of snow days are from when I was little and would go to my grandparents house. My brother and I would get all suited up to go out and “help” grampy shovel the driveways. He would always make big hills for us to slide down and start up a snowball fight or two. When we had our fill we would go in and sit by the wood stove in the basement to warm up and have cookies my grandmother baked us.
It’s funny that you posted this today; we’re anxiously awaiting our first blizzard of the year here in SWMI! I can’t wait, though it will make this last week of classes…interesting. My favorite memory would have to be one in Boston; I was working a horrible office job and we got a TON of snow (good old Noreasters), and they let me out early. J and I walked home through the Fens, and everything was beautiful and silent. We played in the snow for a while before heading home; everyone on the T looked at us like we were crazy, because we were in professional clothes but covered in snow. It was great.
Boston had her first real snow on Sunday and it was lovely. Your photos of the first Maryland snow are, as always, gorgeous!
One of my favorite snow day memories happened just a few years ago. Overnight, mid-January it snowed 32 inches in Boston resulting in local businesses, schools, even state govt’ offices closing. My sister, her husband, my husband and I all off of work bundled up her three kids and walked to a huge hill near our homes. We spent HOURS sledding down that hill with many other folks in our community. It was fresh, brisk and one of the most fun times I’ve had in the snow as an adult. It brought back happy memories of my childhood in Idaho, sledding and tubbing almost every weekend in winter. I loved being with my family and all the people in our town, enjoying ourselves, taking turns, laughing and feeling connected.
Winter is my favorite season, and the snow is a large part of the reason.
My favorite snow memory was several years ago…2002 to be exact…it snowed like crazy on Christmas eve and Christmas and we were snowed in and didn’t get to go to my in-laws for the day as usual.
We instead spent the day sledding with our two boys at a hill within walking distance of our house; making hot chocolate and cookies; enjoying a makeshift Christmas dinner; playing games and cards. It is still one of the best Christmases I remember. My boys still remember it as the day mom sledded off a huge ramp we built and landed head first into a snow bank!
We lived in Germany, at the edge of a small village right next to an apple orchard, when I was a teenager. I had to be out of the house by 6.30 to get the 6.45 bus to school, so in the winter my walk through the village to the bus stop was always in the dark. I was the only person from my street who was out and about at that time of day, and I love it. I loved the smell of the cold, that muffled snow quiet and the glint of the moonlight on the snow in the unlit streets, where the only marks in the snow, if there were any at all, were animal tracks, whether they be bird, cats or foxes. It was the best time of day, quiet, cold and magical, and it made winter my favourite time of year, especially when it is snowing. I think I still get enormously over excited by snow because of those early morning walks.
The day we found out we were pregnant with our second (a profound surprise since it had taken 5 years with our first and our first was less than a year old at the time!) we walked out of the doc’s office and it was snowing…in mid-March…an Equinox snow
My most memorable snow day is when I worked at Wal-mart. I bundled up in a snowsuit and the walk to work took me about 45 minutes instead of 5. I figured a lot of employees wouldn’t be able to make it in since they weren’t within walking distance – and we needed to be open for people who needed to buy shovels, snowblowers, boots, and other urgent items. Yeah…tons of shoppers showed up, but just to browse around the store like it was any other day.
Last year we had a really horrific ice storm here in Kentucky, and several of our friends’ electricity went out for about a week, so they came to stay with my husband and I in our smallish apartment. Everyone was off from work and all the streets were closed, so we just stayed in, watched a lot of movies, cooked and ate together and just had some time to reconnect. It was like we put life on pause for a week.
I remember building a snowman with my brother as a child and we decorated it with a hat and scarf. However, once the snow melted, we could not find the hat and scarf. We were convinced that the snowman had come to life and walked off with it like Frosty. Everytime I build a snowman with my kids, I think about that snowman of mine. I love how we believe in anything as children
Growing up in New Hampshire, my sister and I would put our cross country skis in the car, drive to a remote trail, and ski all afternoon. We weren’t the best skiers by any means (there was a lot of falling, and a lot of pulling each other up!) but we always had so much fun. I really miss those snowy days!
Cross-country skiing through our front yard and building snow families (dogs and all!)
Just one?
I grew up in the Seattle area, which is not known for it snowfalls. One year we got over a foot and all the schools and businesses shut down everywhere! My father, having lived in Alaska for several years, had no fear of snow or icy hills and offered to drive me anywhere I wanted to go. Off to a friend’s house we went. We sledded down hills all afternoon and then later in the evening I went errand running with their family. I was just getting to know her father (whom I thought a no-nonsense serious-at-all-times man) and got quite the surprise. There we were in his Land Rover doing doughnuts in a parking lot and he was giggling. Such a great memory.
When I lived in Northern California’s Central Valley, we didn’t ever get snow (beyond a dusting every few years) so we would drive to the Sierras to enjoy the snow. There are roadside snow-parks, where one can park the car and hike out and enjoy sleighriding, tubing, or go out into the backcountry. The Sierras get a mighty snowpack, 20 feet, in some winters, so you have to climb up makeshift steps to get out onto the snow.
My husband and I used to take snowshoes, pack a lunch, complete with a thermos of hot cider or tea, a flask of whiskey, and hike into the great forests of Douglas Firs, and around frozen lakes. After we got our dog, Ella, she accompanied us. Exhilarating fun.
Once, on a hike, the weather changed suddenly, from a clear sunny day to an overcast, foggy day, and we worried that we might be caught in something we didn’t want to drive out of, so we hurriedly retraced our path – we were about an hour out. It was amazing how fast the mist was upon us, and how cold it got. Looking up into the sky, we saw a weird halo around the sun, and the illusion of 2 suns; a sundog. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_dog) It was something I’ll never forget. We made it back to the car, and managed to drive out through the mist; a few hundred feet lower in elevation it was fine, clear and sunny in the valley.
My favorite snow day memory is when I was a kid – maybe 11. My birthday is Jan. 3 so I had a friend over and we lived in the country. She got snowed in at our house and I remember my dad pulling a caravan of our sleds (my younger sis too) up the snowy road between my grandma’s house and ours.
One of my favourite ones comes from Thanksgiving 1997. In Canada, Thanksgiving is the second weekend in October. A really good friend from college had driven up to surprise me and spend the weekend. We got some early Christmas shopping done (for her younger brothers and sisters living in Japan) and were having a fabulous time. On Sunday morning we woke to a world transformed with lots of heavy, wet snow (and no electricity). It was a cozy day, but the best when we went outside to clear the snow and get some fresh air. The snowball fight with my friend was a lot of fun, especially when my grandpa joined in. His weapon of choice was a shovel. That’s a lot of snow dumped on you with one shovelful. The electricity came on in time for us to roast the turkey.
Thanks for making me think about this! When my 3 kids were little, no matter when the first snow was – early in the morning, late at night – we would all bundle up and play in the snow! That was so much fun and now with 2 off to college and the youngest busy in high school – I bundle up and go for a walk and listen to the neighbor kids enjoying their first snow of the season -
I grew up in the Bay Area of CA so not much snow. When I was in high school I would commute 2 hours to a ballet class in Montara (up near San Francisco on the coast just north of Half Moon Bay.) The studio looked out over a beautiful garden. One morning while we were at the barre it started to “snow.” There was nice stuff actually coming from the sky, and it was cold enough to slightly coat the ground. All of us ran outside in our leotards, tights and pointe shoes to play in the snow. It stopped a few minutes later, and was all melted before class was over.
Years ago, I think it was the early to mid-’90s, we had a huge blizzard. I think I was in middle school, and at the time, my grandmother used to come over for dinner every Friday night. Well, it had started to snow when she came over, and it kept snowing all through dinner and dessert, and by the time one of my parents would have been taking her back to her apartment (which was only a couple of miles from our house), there was enough snow on the ground that we decided she should just stay the night. We got so much snow over the course of that night and the next day or two that she ended up staying a whole week! I’m pretty sure school was out for the duration, too. I had a trundle bed in my room, so Grandma stayed with me, and it was like having a big slumber party for a week.
Your snow day photos are gorgeous! My favorite snow-related memory is coming in from the cold for a big warm cup of hot cocoa!
Probably my favorite snowy memory was from about 10 years ago when my husband and I lived in Jackson, Miss. where there is very little snowfall (if there is frozen precipitation in the winter, it is usually ice). I remember my husband waking me up by calling to me at the bedroom door. As I sat up in bed, he hit me with a snowball. I was so startled! Overnight it had snowed 11 inches! As the weather forecast had no mention of snow… not to mention nearly a foot of snow, everyone was completely surprised. It was a huge gift to the area as people made huge snowpeople and had great snowball fights. It’s as though the whole city was recapturing their childhoods.
It was the blizzard of 1978 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeastern_United_States_blizzard_of_1978 ). I made it home from school as the snow blew horizontally in front of me, obscuring the roads and sidewalks. I didn’t go back to school for 3 weeks! The first few days were the storm, then cleanup of the snow. People couldn’t drive and couldn’t get anywhere. My sister walked to my parents house from about 3 towns away. I walked to a city golf course (about 4 miles from my house) to go tobogganing with friends in about 7 feet of snow. People walked up and down streets with no cars. It was a ton of fun.
Here’s what I remember – getting all bundled up in snowsuit and boots and hat and scarf and mittens. Going outside and standing in the cold for about 30 seconds and realizing I had to go back inside because I needed to go to the bathroom!
I was perhaps 10, wearing boots that were too large for me. My parents had HUGE drifts outside our home, and my little brother & I were tromping through them like Hudson Bay trappers. It was nearing Christmas, and we were SO excited. We could see all our family’s lights and decorations and WARMTH through the windows. And then I stepped up and OUT OF MY BOOT!! We laughed so hard as I tried to get my foot back down into the boot and the drift without falling down!!
I have to share my very first snow memory. Growing up in Australia, needless to say I didn’t actually see snow until I was 21 years old. My husband and I were getting stationed in Japan, and I had to fly from Perth in December (summer time!) to Japan all by myself. I met my husband at Narita Airport in Tokyo…no snow yet. When we landed in Misawa I was wearing sweatpants, a long-sleeve shirt, sneakers and a longer flannel shirt over my other shirt – not really gear for cold weather. I got off the plane and stepped right into about 4 inches of snow! I was definitely not prepared and that started my love/hate (more hate, really) affair with snow.
One of my earliest memories deals with snow. I remember a snowdrift so big it reached the second floor of the house (which cannot be correct, Philly could not have possibly gotten that much snow). I climbed to the top in my little pink snowsuit and got stuck waist-deep at the pinnacle. I think my dad had to climb up and rescue me. That was the same year I fell flat on my butt on the corner of the driveway which had turned into a skating rink overnight. Dad installed a drain there in the spring…
I distinctly remember a blizzard so incredlbe, I was too small to even walk through it. We opened our back door one morning to find the snow coming down in sheets and the snow so high we had to swim through it. We had a yellow lab at the time, and she went crazy! She ran out into the snow and my brother and I chased her, and we had a fantastic time playing and making forts and throwing snow balls.
I grew up in California so when I went to Utah for college I got to see snow fall from the sky for the first time in my life. I was amazed at how quiet it was. It was so magical. I loved living in a snowy place for the first time in my life.
The same day that you got snow, we got some here in NoVa. My daughter, walking in the evening and watching the snow fall, said, “Mommy, it’s like living in a snowglobe.”
my best ever snow day was three years ago, after i moved to MN from sydney, australia. we got a foot of snow and i just couldn’t believe it. i stared and stared out the window and then went for a drive just to see the rest of the city.
Growing up in Mass there is always plenty of snow, but one of my fondest memories is of my mom and dad taking us skating on the Mystic lakes. The lake was covered with snow. None of us were big ice skaters but my dad decided that this couldn’t be too hard so on went the skates, up he stood, down he fell, all 6′ 4″ of him. Flat on his back. My mom laughed so hard that when he managed to get up, he tripped her and she fell flat on her behind as well. It was funny to see my little mom (5′ 1″) skating rings around my dad as he held on to the shovel for support.
Delurking to reply because this post brought up so many favorite memories for me. I spent my early childhood in NC, so snow was a rare delight, and the big hills in my neighborhood were closed to car traffic so that all the kids could get some sledding experience.
I have a vivid memory of my parents bringing a huge pot of steaming hot cocoa up the hill.
Later, in highschool, I lived in massachusetts, and the best conversations always took place during snowstorms. I had a couple of friends who always joined me for hour long walks, when the falling flakes provided privacy and our visible breath seemed to make our shared hopes and dreams palpable and possible.
I love the snow, as long as I don’t have to drive in it!
My kindergarten was half day, and I went in the morning. One winter day, I walked the half a block from school to home and found that my father was there. As the youngest of what was then five children, it was a rarity to have time alone with my dad, and he told me he was home just to make a snowman with me. We made the snowman, and also made one of my favorite memories of my father.
I moved to the south of England in 1995. In the north it snows every year and everyone bears it with true northern grit. In the south it snows once a decade and it is greeted with overwhelming childish glee by even the most sensible down-to-earth grown-ups.
Last year it snowed heavily and only I and a couple of Danes made it into the office. I had a meeting over at Oxford University Computing Services and it made my morning to see that the network services team had been in early to build a 6 foot snowman and that they (short on coal for eyes and carrots for noses) had animated him with an old sound card, some memory and a scarf made from ethernet cables.
I was living on my own in a basement apartment in Somerville MA and woke up one morning to the sight of snow completely covering the itty-bitty windows. The radio told me it was still coming down outside, so I got all bundled up to go walking in it. 8 am on a Saturday, the streets were deserted and the snow was coming down in huge fat flakes. But the most amazing thing was that it was thundering. It was a revelation to me, I never knew that snow and thunder could go together!
I grew up in California, and only had snow when we decided to go up to the mountains to ski. So my most memorable snow moment is actually quite recent. 2 and a half years ago My husband and i moved to Seattle. On December 1st of that year we went down town for the Urban Craft Uprising. I dressed warm ish, but not snow worthy. I vividly remember stepping out of the exhibition hall that afternoon to go home and seeing the snow. It was amazing to me, not because it was snowing, but because it was snowing, and i lived there. I was giddy and am pretty sure i started skipping and danced all the way too my car. My husband thought it was hilarious, having grown up in cold rural Michigan himself. We haven’t had snow yet this year, but i still get excited when the first snow comes. They say it might come this weekend, and i am keeping my fingers crossed.
I’m not sure I’ll ever have a better snow memory that one from my early childhood. I was probably about 6 or 7 and living in NY and we had a huge snow and ice storm. It turned everything white and the trees, which seemed so tall to my younger self, were gorgeously laden with icicles. It was magical and my older neighbor pulled me through it on a sled. I can’t imagine that I’ll ever experience anything like that again.
I remember being about 14 years old and waking up one morning to go with my family out into our forested backyard/property to pick a Christmas tree. It was a bright, clear day, and when we bundled up and went outside we discovered that the two feet of snow already covering the ground had been iced over during the night and the crust was so thick it would support our weight! we were able to slip slide all the way across the yard and down to the forest edge, and dragging back the tree was a snap! It was so cool to feel like our entire yard had turned into an ice rink, but we were a couple of feet off the ground. I’ve never experienced the same combination of conditions again.
Lovely snowy picture!
I grew up in Southern California, so snow was something you could see on the mountains nearby, not something that came to you. We drove up to visit the snow yearly and sometimes went on ski trips, but I never experienced actual snow falling from the sky until I was in sixth grade. We had a class trip to the mountains for a week and partway through, the weather changed drastically and suddenly there were white flurries of snow! I want this to be a magical story of magic, but in actuality, I have very poor circulation, so I spent the rest of the trip never quite warm enough and no one believed me that my feet hurt because I was wearing boots and thick socks. But the snow itself was beautiful, and it was so amazing to see that it really does fall from the sky. As often as I had been told that or seen it in movies, it was so shocking and amazing to see it in real life. I think I’d only believed in it in the sense that my brain knew people were not lying to me, but I had nothing to connect it to. We made snowmen and threw snowballs and worried about having to stay another week!
Huge storm in Nashville one year. All the power out and waiting for the transformers to be delieved. All the kids went to a motel with parents, I got ALL the pets at my home. Kept a fire going and the out of doors was a winter wonderland cause there was NO NOISE! I will never forget that.
2 memories stand out: when i was about 10ish – we lived in WA with little opportunity to play in REAL snow – i built a snow dog. i was so proud of that thing! and then, 2 years ago when my oldest was old enough and my middle child almost old enough to help – we built our first real snowman. real. BIG snowman as a family. nothing special in the snowman itself – but so very special in the little hands that helped to build it. precious.
Two years ago my grand daughter came to Chicago to visit me from Nashville. It was March and we got dumped with a foot or more of snow. She went out in the snow with me to build a snowperson (in her rain boots) and she was so amazed by it all. She had never seem this much snow. When we headed back in side to drink hot chocolate she was even more surprised to see that the Easter bunny had been there to drop off her basket. She talks about that adventure over and over.
My favorite snow memory is opening the blinds that covered the wall of glass behind the bed, snuggling with my new husband and realizing that neither of us were going to be able to get out of the parking lot, and we’d just HAVE to stay that way all day, watching the snowflakes fall.
lol, can my first snowy memory be my first blizzard? XDDD Coming from San Diego, California, we didn’t have snow. Sure, you could drive up to places that had snow in the Wintertime, but where I lived, HA!!!
Well, in 2003 I decided to move up to Atlantic Canada to be with my then boyfriend(now Fiance). And my first Winter here we had one of the worse blizzards that I have experienced since I’ve lived here for 6 years now, we weren’t even ready for it since his family said they get warnings like that all the time and it just blows over. THIS DID NOT BLOW OVER. In fact, they had warnings all across the bottom of local tv channels. Anyhow, I’m 5’6″ and enough snow came that it was up to my waist in some areas.
I had to go get water and that was a scary feat, I followed the footprints of someone who walked ahead of me and by the time I reached the store sweat was dripping off my head. Also, that walk would usually take 10 mins, it took me almost an hour because the snow was so deep. It took 3 hours for my Fiance and I to dig out the driveway.. so yeah, that really broke me in. Welcome to snow!!!
One year my youngest brother was about 3 and it snowed somewhere close to 6 feet. We dug out a reace track on the patio so he could ride his tricycle around. Think hay bale maze, but with snow.
My favorite snow memory is from a few weeks ago when we drove through the sierra nevada range and my kids got to sled in some significant snow for the first time. (we’re from Texas) You’ve never seen such excited kids!
My family and I lived way up in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina for most of my youngest years, and we would all eagerly await the yearly snowfalls. (well, I rather doubt that my parents looked forward to the snow!) I remember that it always seemed as though the snow would start in the evening…we would turn on our porch light and watch the HUGE snowflakes falling down so gently while sipping the hot chocolate that my mom reserved ONLY for snow days. In the morning, we were assured of no school, but my brother and I would always manage to wake before dawn so that we could check out the ridiculous amounts of snow that had fallen overnight.
I have a photo of me as a little girl…probably 5 or so…running down our neighborhood with our vanilla-colored dog. The street is so empty…so white…so clean and I am so happy…
Snow! You are so lucky! My favourite snow memory is of one day a couple of years ago when I was working as a nanny in a little ski town in BC to two beautiful, smiley, creative children. I grew up in England so we barely ever had any snow (an inch of snow which lasted half a day was an incredible event!). So the first day there was heavy snow that year in Canada, the children took me out in it… we went tobogganing through piles of deep snow, which I had never done in my life before, and they taught me how to make snow angels! They could not believe that I had no idea what a snow angel was and were such wonderful little teachers
I miss the snow so much!
Only months after rescuing my (awesome, but at the time, pretty skinny and sad) dog, i sat watching in disbelief as snow fell in Tucson, Arizona. We get snow on the mountains, but never in town – i couldn’t believe it! I took the dog outside and cracked up at his reaction to what was clearly his first introduction to white stuff falling from the sky. He got a wild look in his eyes and stamped his feet and snorted like a Clydesdale. Then he tried biting at it / eating it, and snorted some more. Finally, he decided it was REALLY FUN and started ripping around the yard doing figure eights and dive-bomb rolls. It was the first time I saw my dog behave gleefully and without any inhibition or fear. And as he ran snorting up to me, covered in snow, he looked at me with eyes that said that he knew he was with me and this was his home.
My favourite snow memory might be a little naughty, because it involves playing hooky from school. When I was in high school I lived next door to a friend, and one snowy morning we concocted a plot to stay home from school on our own unofficial snow day, and spent the day curled up under a blanket in her living room, eating oatmeal and watching cartoons. It was awesome!
I grew up in the hills of western Iowa. I could tell if we would have school or not by the number of times it took the snowplow to get through the drifts that always developed on the road. I had horses and was always worried about them during blizzards. One time quite a bad storm was predicted and I asked my dad if we should go put the horses in the barn. The answer was “no” as they had protection. The next morning I got up and asked my dad if we could go see the horses. He said that they were fine; he had gotten up at 2:00 a.m. to put them in the barn. I traipsed in the snow up to my waist to visit them and it was so cold outside and so warm in the barn!
I grew up in MD, and remember one winter when I was very small (perhaps 1984 or so). There was so much snow around that the streets hadn’t been plowed yet, and my dad took my sister and I outside and spun us around in the middle of the street on snow saucers with ropes attached to them. I’m sure we were extremely dizzy by the end, but I just remember being happy.
Snowshoeing in the Rocky mountains a few years ago. The snow falling on the pine trees was beautiful, amd, I love how everything seems quieter when it’s snowing.
My brother and I had so much fun every time it would snow. We’d play out in our front yard with our younger sister and when she’d start to get annoying, we’d convince her that she should be buried in snow — you know, like you’d bury someone in sand at the beach. Every year she fell for it. We’d get her all packed in…and then pummel her with snowballs. Hee, hee. Still makes me laugh! That said, I guess it’s about time I call my sister and apologize for this! =)
When I was about 10 or 11, we lived in Weston, CT. On the corner of our road was a nursery and they had a small pond at the end of their property, visible from the road. I don’t recall ever seeing anyone near that pond. The weather got colder and the little pond froze over.
One day, coming home from school I decided I needed to skate on that pond. I walked down there all by myself, put on the skates and stepped out onto the ice. It was perfect. There were no ripples, no bumps, it was like glass. And I was the first person to touch the ice! It was pure joy. My skates slid effortlessly.
Within an hour, lots of other kids showed up, including some rowdy boys who commandeered that pond for a hockey game. But for a brief moment, that pond was mine and I was a ballerina on ice.
My favorite snow memory is from college when we had a 2 foot snow storm overnight. It was the first time in decades that the school was closed because the snow plows couldn’t keep the roads open. My roommates and I ended up making hot chocolate, a huge pot of soup and goofed off all morning (very unusual for us). Once the afternoon hit, we dressed up to play in the snow. We went “sledding” down the steps of the campus buildings. We ran around making snow angels and having snowball fights until it got dark. It was so much fun to return to childhood!
I have many fond memories of snowmen and snow tunnels and sledding as a child, but my favorite memory is this:
One of my cousins from Australia, who was in his early 20s at the time, was visiting my family in Pennsylvania during his first trip to the States. It snowed one of the days during his stay. It was only a flurry, but he was so thrilled to see snow falling from the sky – something he’d never experienced! We went outside and caught snowflakes on our tongues and jumped and ran around in it. It was nice to see something I’d grown up with through someone else’s eyes!
I remember the first time I saw snow falling. I stopped the car, got out and stood on the side of the road with my arms open. I remember how it felt to have snowflakes land on my face. Even my eyelashes! It was so beautiful.
Wow, great book! Thanks for the opportuity to win.
My favorite snow day didn’t come because of a surprise snow storm, but because of a surprise trip. While opening presents on Christmas Day, my aunt suggested that she take all six cousins, from 17 to 7, up to her house in upstate New York for a few days of skiing. It was such a treat to spend a few days with my cousins, without our parents, skiing from morning till night, and going home to hot chocolate and thrown-together meals.
Love the pictures of your snow! It looks beautiful, but very cold. Definitely the kind of weather you stay inside and appreciate while sipping hot beverages and knitting.
Here in southern Oregon, it doesn’t snow very often or very heavily. But every few years, we’ll get a doozy. One of those happened when I was a little kid (maybe 5?). I remember that my sister (who is 5 years older) would not share the sled. Growing up on rural property with a good down hill side, I decided to improvise. After failed attempts with a tire and a tarp (don’t ask), I grabbed one of Mom’s cookie sheets from the kitchen and went sledding on that. It worked surprisingly well! That is definitely my most vivid snow memory.
I love your pictures they’re making me feel all homesick for the north of Scotland. When I was I kid we could normally expect a good few days of heavy snow at this time of year, enough to get school cancelled. Our friends would come round and we’d all go sledging on my dads croft (smallholding) which was basically a steep hill divided into fields. A major achievement was considered to be starting in the top field and making it down through all three fields to the river without crashing. the best memory ever has to be of the winter when dad rigged a light up outside the barn in the top field, it was wonderful sledging in the dark under the stars.
My favorite snowy day memory was a few years ago when my friend from Australia visited me and my family right after Christmas. When she arrived it was gray outside, but in the afternoon the snow started to fall heavily, and when it began getting dark it was perfect to get out. We went out with a sledge to the local sledding hill which was lit all night, with my boyfriend and younger brothers and played for a few hours. When we got home, my mum had made hot cocoa and fresh baked buns. It’s one of my favorite memories ever.
Oh snow! Cross country skiing is my favorite thing. I do not get to do it nearly enough these days. However, the year that I started x-c, the winter of my senior year of high school in western MA it snowed everyday. Really, not a lot everyday but enough to keep everything freshly white. It was the best winter ever.
My favorite snowy memory is of a walk I took with my dad when I was in 9th grade. We lived in Portlans, OR, where is seldom snows. That winter we had a a real downpour (or so it seemed; not sure how it would compare to the 6 winters I spent in the upper midwest). Anyway, school was closed, as were most of the all businesses, and my father, who had also grown up in Portland and was excited by teh snowfall, decided to take our dog and me out for a walk. Our dog was a husky/malamute mix, so he was completely in his element. It was so beautiful outside and so super quiet, shockingly quiet because of all of the snow. The memory is, well, memorable, both because of the rarity of the snow and also because it was a rare father-daughter moment for us.
For part of high school, I attended a boarding school in the very cold and snowy north. With the short days of winter, it was easy to get depressed when it was always cold and dark.
Well, I started a habit of rushing back from my last class and going out snowshoeing for the last few minutes of sunlight. I remember the first time I did it, I climbed up a huge drift of fresh powder. It felt so good to conquer a snow drift instead of slipping and sliding around on ice or tromping through deep snow.
I think my favorite memories of playing in the snow are all with my kids– building snowmen, sledding, shoveling….anything really!! Last year the kids had a blast at my parents’ house in Milwaukee over Christmas, they’d gotten some 30 inches of snow and the kids were able to build their own snow slide in the back yard! We all had such fun.
I’m English but have lived in Switzerland since I was 8, so I have lots of snow memories.
What I always think of when it snows for the first time, though (and we don’t live in the mountains, so we don’t get that much!) is my birthday when I was 19.
My birthday is December 1st and I had arrived home only a few weeks previously and in great anxiety because I was pregnant and nobody knew (yet). By my birthday, everyone knew but nobody knew how we were all going to cope. I’m an only child and this wasn’t my parent’s plan for me! So on my birthday I was on my own at home while my parents were at work and when I looked out, it was so still and quiet and the first snow was falling in great big flakes, just beautiful – and the first time I had lived in the country, too, where it’s never quite the same as in town. I think at that moment, I knew it would all work out somehow – and it did. My eldest daughter is now 25 and happily married, with a little boy of her own, and she is a wonderful girl (as well as her two younger sisters!) who has brought my husband and me much joy.
Thanks for the reminder!
Such an appropriate post as this monster storm is working across the country…where I am for work this week is bracing for 10-14″ – so the commute from the hotel to the project site tomorrow could be interesting.
So many snow memories…my favorite though is when I was in 1st grade…we went to Ohio for Christmas with Dad’s side of the family. One day we went sledding on “the” local hill & just as I was getting ready to slide down I lost my tooth into the snow. Yep…white tooth in white snow…amazingly my Dad was able to find my tooth in snow & the tooth fairy was still able to visit that night. To this day (almost 30 years later) we still joke about that tooth.
Growing up in Southern California, my snow memories are skiing-related. My favorite day ever was once in Utah when it had snowed the night before. My sister and I got on the chairlift first thing and as we went up the mountain, there was a beautiful, huge rainbow at the top, and it wasn’t just an arc but came to about two-thirds of a full circle. I’ve never seen anything like it!
That first picture is so gorgeous! We don’t get a lot of snow here (although usually lots in the nearby mountains for snowboarding/skiing) and I’m having trouble remembering a specific snow story. What I do love when it snows is going for walks – I love watching the flakes come down, the way they cling to the bare branches or weigh down the firs, hearing the dull crunch (oxymoron?) underfoot, and the complete stillness that pervades the air.
I have lots of snowy memories having grown up in NY state as a child and we spent weekends in VT. I now live in CT and still get great snows every now and then. I have a favorite childhood snowy time and a favorite adult snowy time.
My favorite childhood snowy memory was when we were in VT – our cabin was on the side of a mountain and the only way we could get to it was via snowmobile. I am one of 4 children so we had a sled that went behind the snow mobile and we could all be hauled up the mountain (with the groceries, dogs and cat). One very snowy weekend, we skiied down the “driveway” and my dad would pull us back up the hill on the snowmobile – we spent so much time going up and down that mountain. It was wonderful.
My favorite adult memory was about 7 years ago when it snowed like crazy on Christmas Eve and all Christmas Day. My parents were visiting for a wedding and spent a Christmas with me and my husband and children. We took walks, played outside, the dogs romped in the snow, and we hung out by the fire enjoying the peace of the season and being so glad we didn’t have to go anywhere or do anything but what we wanted to do.
Favorite snowy memory? Wow, I’ve got way too many of these to single one out! The first snow of the year is always a magical moment for me – I love, love, love it! Ok, if I have to choose, I’d say that two of my favorite snow memories have to do with me driving friends home in the middle of the night in the kind of snowstorm you want to enjoy from besides the fireplace with a hot cocoa in hand: over a foot of snow on the ground, and more (much more!) coming down. It was both exhausting and, somehow, exhilarating. Driving my friends home safe and sound in that kind of weather deepened our bonds, and made for terrific memories!
Don’t enter me in the contest, I just wanted to tell a little story. When I was younger, a couple of my siblings (maybe 5 of them?) and I built a snow fort in the lot across the alley. The snow plows would pile up snow into HUGE mounds and then we would go build fort in them. It was really crazy, we would hollow out these mounds, pouring water on the walls every night so it would all freeze into solid ice. By the end of the winter, our fort consisted of at least four separate rooms that we could stand up in, each connected by tunnels. The only access to the fort was through a hole in the top of the largest room, which was shaped into a slide that led down to the fort. We would cover the hole with a large snow boulder so that no one could tell this mound of snow was a fort at all! It was so much fun.
I have a picture of my sister and I, probably about under 10 years each on a shelf. In it, you see our house and lawn, covered by about an inch of snow (you know, where it doesn’t even cover the grass all the way. Around here, it’s enough to cancel school). Anyhow, we are both snuggled up together with our two bassett hound dogs, wearing umpteen numbers of layers and giant hats (that don’t match the layers), hugging the dogs and grinning from ear to ear. I love this picture, since it says so much about me and my sister. We’d always play outside for hours in the snow when it came, methodically checking the height of snow on the patio table to see if more had come, hoping for yet another snow day. How awful those snowsuits were to get into, and how excited we were to have a rare day. When we came inside, Mom would make us hot chocolate and sometimes chocolate chip cookies. It’s a great memory, and I smile every time I think about it.
Beautiful pictures and thank you for a generous contest.
Well, my first memory of snow was going to Yosemite for science camp in 8th grade; my parents HATE snow so we never went to see any as kids. I love the snow! I lived in Alaska for years and worked on a boat so I loved wild, Alaska winter storms where you couldn’t see to the bow of the boat. I love the serenity and peace that can be found in a snow storm — there is an amazing quiet and peace that exists when the noise of life is muted by the snow. I remember it in Alaska and now when I go skiing. I love the freedom, beauty and solitude that can be found on the slopes, especially during night skiing. Learning to ski is probably my best snow memory (now that I can actually ski… I was one frustrated student)
But my all time favorite snowy memory would be visiting Nunivak on St. Lawrence Island in the Bering Sea. Our ship stopped off the shore and when we got to shore, the villagers met us. A guy with a snow mobile and sled took about 6 of us into town. He introduced us to many villagers and then invited us into his home. After a blessing, I tried dried seal meat (VERY salty) and looked at beautiful engraved walrus tusks. Then we walked around the village and I got to see traditional drying methods – including half a whale in someone’s yard! – and met some wonderful, friendly people. During the winter, when the ice moves down, the people from Nunivak visit Nome by riding snowmobiles more than 100 miles across a frozen sea. It was just so unique I loved it.
my first snow memory is from 1978. We lived in Australia’s southern most state then, Tasmania, where it does snow but not all the time. My sister and I were only small. We opened our curtains in the morning and saw outside that everything was white. We’d never seen anything like it.
Mum let us go outside before school in our gumboots and coats and we made our first attempts at snowballs – we’d seen that on TV. The snow wasn’t deep. Just a light dusting. But it was so much fun.
Sadly it was gone by mid morning but because it had happened near my birthday, every July that we lived in Tasmania I hoped it would snow on my birthday. It never did.
My fav snow memory is from when I was 5 months pregnant and we snowshoed to the top of one of the local mountains. We were with one of my girlfriends and I just remember laughing so hard at all the silliness we got up to that sunny day. The peak just seemed to be just over that hill, then that hill and then the next. It was such a long day but the view was worth it. I tell Sophie how she hitchhiked her way to the top of the mountain when we drive by topped with snow.
Last year my family spent Christmas at my Aunt and Uncle’s house in Williamsburg, VA. It actually snowed a little on Christmas Day, and we went for a walk around Colonial Williamsburg. The place looked so festive with the snow falling amongst the decorated buildings and people bundled up in periodic dress.
My earliest childhood memory is of snow. In Virginia Beach, VA it is a big deal. Mom says I was barely 3. I remember watching the snow from the window and begging to go out. My mom had to deliver the envelope of money she had collected for the March of Dimes to the block leader down the street. I remember standing on a shoveled sidewalk looking down at my patent leather Mary Janes and my pink pea coat – no snow gear at the beach. The snow was almost at my eye level. I remember taking off a mitten, grabbing a little clump of snow in my fist and being confused when it wasn’t in my hand when I opened it. Magic!!
One of my favorite snow memories is from my college days – I moved north from KY to the Hudson Valley, in NY, to a liberal arts college with lots of international students. One of my best friends was from Jamaica, and our freshman year was the first time he had ever seen snow. We stole cafeteria trays from the cafeteria and would use them as makeshift sleds to slide down the big hill behind the dining hall, shrieking all the way.
I think my favorite might be of a time before I lived where snow was a common occurrence, so one summer my family drove up to the continental divide in the Rockies to find snow. We ended up pulling off the side of the road at a little picnic area, and we wandered around in the wilderness, sinking up past our knees and getting totally wet and freezing and loving every minute.
The last Christmas in the house I grew up in, we woke up on Christmas morning to that perfect ideal – what had been a brown and grey landscape the night before was covered in a good 6 inches of pure white snow! After the gifts were opened, the whole family trooped outside to play and make a 6 ft. snowman. We were late to Christmas dinner, but it was so worth it!
Well, I don’t live in snow area’s but I have been in snow several times. The best memory is when my 16 year old son went with us to Indiana to visit our Uncle. He told me more than anything he wanted to see snow and it really snows their. Well, we got their Christmas Eve and during the night it snowed about 5″. So he got his wish of seeing and playing in snow. It was awesome. 6am up and we all went outside and he was like a 6 year old enjoying the beautiful white stuff falling from the sky. He stayed more outside than inside that whole Christmas day!! Truly a prayer was answered for him that night.
Rowena
Off the top of my head, my favorite snow memory is not any specific one, but the general memory of driving to the snow. (I’m from the Northwest, we drive to snow.) We get as much of our snow clothes on as we can stand, pile into the car, and drive from a house that’s maybe dusted with snow to a winter wonderland full of snow covered trees. There’s such potential and anticipation in that drive. Even when it’s a long drive, we still spend half the time pointing out the changes in the landscape as we gain elevation.
Two Januaries ago it was the first time I’d been up north for winter in ages, and there was a glorious, wet, sticky awesome deep snow. My family is not really one for playing in the snow, but this was so fantastic we couldn’t resist. My brother and my parents and I–my brother and I are adult people, by the way–were out there making snowmen and having snowball fights, and for the pinnacle of our evening, my dad found our plastic sleds from the 80′s in the garage, and we did some sledding on the sidewalk. Did I mention that my parents live at the bottom of a long hill? It was awesome.
I grew up in the snow belt, which meant it needed to snow at least a foot for a snow day. I then moved around for many years and lived in many places where people had never seen snow, never built a snowman, nothing. It was so sad to me despite my years of running from the cold. I recently moved back up north having not seen snow in years and also having forgot all about how fun snow days are. One morning I got a call at 6:30 am letting me know I was off from work! I promptly went back to bed and then a few hours later grabbed my bundled self and my bundled greyhound to show her her first ever snow experience. She ran and ran for hours playing with our other dog and watching her feel so free to play reminded me of what a snow day should be…a day to play and be…..a few months later she developed bone cancer and we had to put her down. To this day I remember how free she looked that day in the snow….
I remember one winter storm when I was a child there was a huge amount of snow, and my mother wanted to take something (perhaps a gift of some kind? or maybe food?) to a friend who was ill and lived across town. I remember bundling up and putting whatever it was on the sled and setting out–it was a really long walk and the snow was really deep (OK, I was littler too), and to keep our spirits up we sang Christmas carols, including every verse of Good King Wenceslas. I remember it as an epic journey although thinking about it in retrospect I think it was maybe a couple of miles each way. It’s funny now to think about it from my mother’s point of view–wanting to do this, having to bring her smallish child along, finding ways to make it feel like a big adventure and an achievement.
I’ve lived in New England for my whole life, so I have many snowy memories. One of the craziest was the blizzard of ’78. I was in eighth grade, and they cancelled school for a whole week! You couldn’t drive on the roads – there was a state of emergency. So we had to walk downtown to shop, pulling a sled the whole way. When we got there, the store was completely out of bread and mild. Why does everyone buy bread and milk when there’s going to be a storm? We had so much fun in the snow, I think it snowed more than three feet!
My favorite snow day memory is from 2007. I live in Indiana and we were hit by a blizzard just before Valentine’s Day and a state of emergency was declared, so everyone was forced to stay home.
We went outside to shovel the drive and it was so incredible to see every family out in their yard, playing, shoveling, throwing snowballs, building snow forts, etc. It was an adult snow day and it makes me happy every time I think about the sense of camaraderie the whole street had while we all played outside and didn’t have to worry about work and other commitments.
The first memory that came to mind was truly a snow day! My family and I lived in a new area of the city, nothing but fields around our little street of new homes. It had snowed all evening, and then all night, and was still snowing when we woke. Because I had a very long walk to school, my dad, who was a teacher at the high school, told me I should stay home. The roads were treacherous, and the sidewalks along the main roads were buried. He wouldn’t have time to drive me to school, and worried about being able to pick me up, if necessary. It would be safer for me to stay at home that snowy day.
The phone rang at seven thirty. It was one of my teachers, who lived across the street. He told me to get my skis and get ready! That day, he and I skied across the drifted fields to school. It was so peaceful and beautiful, it is a memory I treasure.
Aww…I miss fluffy snow! One of my favorite snow memories is going to my grandparents’ house in North Dakota for Christmas one year. The whole family got out the old-school wooden toboggans and spent hours flying down the snowy hills together.
I LOVE this book!
My first snowy memory… HUGE snowstorm when I was in elementary school. The snow was so high, it was nearly up to our porch roof in spots. I think we had school off for at least a week. My brother and I were allowed to pull out the living room sofa bed and sleep on the sofa while watching TV. Excellent. Good times.
I’m not a big fan of the snow (I hate driving and biking in it, and biking is my main mode of transport spring, summer, and fall), so maybe that’s why my fondest memory of snow is from the winter I spent (mostly) away from the frozen tundra of Wisconsin. I spent my freshman year of college in New Orleans, with a roommate I didn’t really get along with who was also from the frozen north (in her case, Chicago). I woke up around 8:30–totally early considering I had nowhere to be until the afternoon–and noticed that the light had that strange quality of snowy light. Also I think there may have been people in the hall being loud, which was annoying considering it was finals week. Also it might have been my birthday? Don’t remember. The point is, is that less than a week after my friends and I had made our last trip downtown for the semester and laughed at the snowflake lights hanging from the palm trees, there was actually a dusting of snow on the palm trees and because no one in New Orleans has any idea how to drive in snow the city came to a bit of a standstill (the kind of standstill with less driving than normal but also more car crashes) and it was all quite lovely
Growing up we lived up a dirt road off a main highway in a very rural mountain community. My brother is two years younger, so when I was in 1st grade, he wasn’t yet going to school. Every morning that year, he would walk me down (about 1/4 mile) to the bus stop, wait with me, and walk home – he was 4 years old. That winter, I had a very favorite stocking cap – loved that cap. I lost it one day either on the way up or down the hill. The cap was white, it was snowy, we couldn’t find it. I was very upset and sad. A week or so later, my brother found my stocking cap, covered in ice, on his way home from walking me to the bus stop. He didn’t have gloves on, but he picked it up and carried it home because he knew how much I loved that thing. My mother said he was almost frost bit by the time he got home. That was 40 years ago and he is still the same kind, stubborn, loving soul who loved his sister enough to brave frozen fingers to bring home something she treasured. I am blessed!
My story combines snow and knitting! On the day of my youngest daughter’s sixth birthday we had a huge snowstorm. My husband’s car got stuck in the snow on the highway as he tried to get home, and both of my girls were nervous about daddy making it home. I had to think of something to keep them busy and calm them down, so we had knitting lessons! The younger one learned finger knitting and made a nice long chain, and my 10-year old started her first scarf. She is still a knitter today (almost 20 years old!) and both girls remember the night as a cozy time instead of a scary one. They always re-tell this story on Claire’s birthday.
Oh, I love this kind of contest…I love dredging through my memories. But this one is easy.
When I was six or so, growing up here in Baltimore, we had a major, major snowstorm. (We still have pictures of our house with the piles of snow. My dad says it was a big storm…it isn’t just a storm that seemed big because I was six.) I remember the piles of snow where my dad shoveled were over my head. But the best part? We got out of school very early on the day the storm arrived and my brother…who was (and still is) six years older than I am…who wouldn’t let me near him with making me carry his book bag or be his footstool…who didn’t seem to want anything to do with me…that brother….he took me up into the attic where we had games and books and he played with me and read to me and we had cookies and cocoa together and he was just so much fun.
Almost 50 years later, he and I are great friends. But that memory of the great day, in the middle of our childhood emnity, that’s golden.
I used to love going sledding at the local golf course and would look forward to it every year. Then when I started skiing, I couldn’t wait for winter to go with our school’s ski club every Wednesday up to Catamount (Berkshires) for night skiing. It was so much fun and I think I was the only one of my friends who could stay out the whole six hours.
This may be a weird snow memory, but here it is: It was January and the college semester was just getting ready to start. It snowed one day and was 60 degrees the next, and that day I saw a bunch of guys in shorts and Tshirts having a snowball fight.
Hi Lolly ~ When I was a kid we had a really big snow ( for Greensboro NC) and my parents and neighbors started a snowball at the top of our street and rolled it two blocks down to stop in our yard. At that point it was too big for a snowman, but my brother and I carved the center out of it and made something like a little snow cave. It lasted well after the grass was back in view!
my favourite snow memory: I was (am) a volunteer for an organisation that facilitates youth exchanges for 3, 6 or 10 months all over the world (over 50 countries!!!) The penultimate goal is to create a more peaceful world by broadening everyones understanding for different cultral values and the like. Of course, in everyday life of a volunteer you don’t always feel this noble goal and there are times you just don’t want to spend even one more hour on the job. But then there are experiences that keep you going with a smile, and ma snow memory is one of them. We were spending a weekend with about 15 exchange kids (teenagers actually) from places such as the USA, China, Chile, France,… in a remote scout-camp. It was november and not too warm but we certainly did not expect snow. When we woke up on Sunday there was a blanket of snow covering everything and some of our kids got pretty excited because they had never seen snow before. Not before long we had a snow fight going on, most of us just wearing t-shirts and sandals with socks. it was so much fun, and it was such a brilliant moment that was extremly uplifting. Everyone was enjoying beeing a kid again (which can be hard for “cool” 17 year-olds). I drove home from the weekend really excited and energized and happy and kept the moment in my mind, when it was even topped! A week or so later I got a little video from another volunteer that had been onthe camp. There was a scence of the snow-fight with so many laughing faces and happyness and he had slowmotioned it and the soundtrack was “What a Wonderful World” by Louis Armstong. I started crying, and I still do everytime I see that video. It must have been some time around 2000 but it still moves me and touches emotions somewhere deep in side of me…
Growing up in southern California, I longed for cold weather. Those fall magazines with “Going back to school” wool clothes were such a tease. When I was thirty, we moved to Idaho and SNOW! One Christmas we got twelve inches of snow on Christmas Eve. Nothing was more beautiful. And the quiet. I never knew it could be so quiet. I miss the beach, the sun, and my family in sunny So. Cal., but not in December!
I love your blog, your inspiring pictures and stories, but have never left a comment before. I love snow and have lots of great memories. One of my favorite ones was a few years ago, I was jogging in a park in Prague. No one else was out. The path was quite icy. It was very quiet, snowy, beautiful icicles. Suddenly I heard a loud noise, and looked across the hillside, to see a few wild sheep, which roam free in this fairly large park. The rams were getting frisky and were butting horns. They were far enough away that I felt safe, but close enough for me to see and hear them. I just stood there for a minute, in the snow, watching their dark shapes against the white snow. I think if it had not been so snowy and icy, more people and dogs would have been out and the sheep would have been hiding. But since it was so snowy, I was able to experience the beautiful energy from these creatures.
Beautiful pictures! When I was a kid, our neighbors had a basketball court in their backyard and in the winter they used to flood it to make a skating rink. Everyone would come and skate on it. The good ole days!!
Rode bus to work. No snow in forcast. Of course it was snowing hard. High heel shoes and sweater. Bus ran off road and I had to walk 5 miles home. Put grocery bags on feet and fell on butt. Took off bags and started walk in 28 degree snow weather. Man in pickup truck picked me up but I had to get my fat self into the bed of truck. Then truck ran off road dumping me into the snow. No injury. I walked rest of way home. No cell phone at that time to call for help. Husband worked nights and was asleep and did not know it snowed. In Nashville it can snow ankle deep and hour later be gone. Of course when he got up most of snow was gone and he could not believe what I went through to get home. It took a week for feet, hands and face to warm up. Luck no injury!
You might remember the blizzard of 1996 in the DC area! We got loads of days off school and ended up building a huge, snow-covered fort in the woods behind our house. Such a great memory.
Lovely pictures as always btw!
Wow, I would love to win this. When I was younger I remember building a huge snow fort in the blizzard of 1996. I was 7 and my neighbors and I built it around her grandmother’s mailbox.
After 14 winters in the Great White North, I have a lot of snowy memories, like the all-night outdoor hockey games that used to go on (and might still!) in North Dakota, or the Christmas the Tailor and I spent “Up Nort’” in a cabin in the Minnesota north woods, where we had 4 feet of snow! But I think my favorite snow is the New England snow of my childhood. Huge drifts, fluffy and soft…not the hard concrete-like snow after a North Dakota blizzard! When I lived on Cape Cod my friends and I used to go sledding on a gigantic slope down the street called Dead Man’s Hill. The best time to sled was after it had rained on top of the snow—it made the sledding surface slick and fast (like that part in Nat’l Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation when Chevy Chase puts space-age grease on his sled!). There were lots of bumps on Dead Man’s Hill, so when it was that slippery you’d fly through the air every time you hit one on your way down the hill. Those were my absolute favorite days of winter—better even than Christmas!
My favorite snowy memories are of the winters we spent living at Scott AFB, IL when my brother and I were young. The way the housing was set up, there was a large open common area behind a bunch of houses. This area became the site for many an epic snowball battle, complete with forts and foxholes and protective walls. Then everyone would head home to thaw out with hot cocoa and a warm blanket. Good times.
We lived in a Canadian national park for five years. One winter we got tons and tons of snow. The skiing was great, the snowshoeing fantastic. One New Year’s Day we and a couple of friends went to snowshoe a hiking trail. It was one of the lesser-used trails and while short, was quite challenging in that the elevation changes were abrupt. There was no one there but us; we kept seeing moose and deer tracks and poo, but never did see any. The day was snowing lightly, the sky bright but overcast. The trees were all laden with heavy snow which muffled any sounds there were. It was like walking in a silent winter dream. All we could hear was our quiet conversation, the shussing of our snowshoes in the powdery snow. The snow was so deep and light, but we floated above it in our snowshoes. Afterwards we went home for hot cocoa, coffee and cookies. It was a great start to the year!
My favorite snow was about ten Christmas Eves ago. I had to ring handbells at church for the Midnight service, so we got the kids to bed before I left and my husband stayed behind. We performed “In the Bleak Midwinter” and then it began to snow as we were leaving the church! It was truly a winter wonderland on the drive home and the kids awoke to their first (and only) white Christmas!
And p.s. please pick me for the booklet — I have it on my wish list!
The blizzard of 1976-my parents divorced earlier that year…we left our large home and moved into a condo complex. My December birthday and Christmas would be slim on gifts, as money was tight for my newly-single Mother, and I just learned that there is no Santa, which really broke my heart–into this not-so-promising scenario entered a week and a half blizzard. No school for days…and the plows left absolute mountains of snow right outside our front door. The beauty and quiet the snow brought really filled my young heart and centered me.
My brother and I dug out cavernous snow forts that lasted for weeks…all-day sledding and snowball fights…bringing me a lot of much needed joy during a not-so-easy time in my childhood.
Gosh, I wish we had a snow day here. All we had was miserable driving rain in NYC!
I can’t really remember the last really good snow day I’ve had. Probably hasn’t been since I was very little. I used to go outside, throw some snowballs around, make some snow angels and get all wet. My dad used to have to snowplow though, so the fun never lasted for long before the family had to hop in the big yellow truck to make our rounds from business to business.
In the city, the snow doesn’t really stick to the ground too well, but every once in a while we do get a few inches that covers the ground. During a really good storm, especially at night, if you go outside as the flakes are falling the city is actually quiet. All you can here is the sound of the falling flakes almost acting as a sound barrier. It’s really quite amazing.
Really enjoy your blog! Really love yoga but can’t seem to put a “routine” together
Anyway one of my favorite snowy day memories is waking up and walking my dog at the end of a snow storm; the sun just beginning to rise and the snow flakes falling from the skies. So quiet and tranquil! Thanks for making me remember this – I’ll try and bring this memory back if I get too stressed this holiday!
I love the snow so it’s hard to choose just one snowy memory!
The one that springs to mind is of our childhood dog, Libby. Libby was a black lab and she was named (by me age 9) after Libby Riddles the first woman to win the the Iditarod.
I live in Juneau, Alaska so there is plenty of snow and plenty of lovely sledding hills near our house. Unfortunately, Libby never liked sledding. She would bark at us as we climbed the hills and chase us when we sled down them! When she caught up with us she would grab our hats and mittens and run away with them so that we would have to stop sledding and go catch her to get our woollies back!
For some reason we never considered leaving Libby at home. We were going for a walk after all! Can’t leave the dog out! Sledding with Libby was a grand adventure because you never know quite what she would do or why she hated our sledding so much. Our friends refused to sled with us but we secretly enjoyed combat sledding with Libby.
Lovely pics as always!
My favorite snowy memory has to be the first time I saw Camdyn play in the snow, because personally I can’t stand the stuff
. She was so little and cute–and was so bundled up she couldn’t put her arms down (ala Christmas Story). She ate snowflakes and did a snow angel. It was precious.
we had to walk from a broken-down pickup back to the house when i was 6 or 7. i had just opened my christmas gift in the truck before it broke down – a plastic toy horse with plastic toy tack – and wouldn’t leave it with the truck, not knowing when we could go back & get it out of the snow. so i put all the pieces in my hat and carried it in my hands the four miles home.
on the way we saw mountain lion tracks (rural colorado) but i don’t remember being scared or cold or anything – just the walking and all the snow, as far as you could see in any direction.
it’s become one of my favorite memories ever and certainly a favorite snow memory
So many good stories! I have so many snow stories to tell. I think I love snow so much becaus, growing up, so many happy memories are associated with snow. It’s as if the business of life slows and family flourishes because of it.
A typical heavy snow was always anticipated by my brother and I, who welcomed a snow day from school. My Daddy was even more ridiculous. He would take us to the grocery store and we would stock up in anticipation. We always made “snow cream”! After the snow, or during, Daddy would build a bonfire at the top of the hill near our house, and neighbors would come to sled down the steep hill near by. It was great fun and good times with family and friends.
I have specific memories as well. Ask me sometime and I will share with you. Some even involve you and your sisters! LY! XXOO
It’s funny, I don’t recall us having many “snow days” when we were kids, although we certainly had lots of snow, being in southern Ontario – so my snow memories are not of specific days, but of being outside digging tunnels with my brothers until the streetlights came on, with no attention paid to the gradual numbing of limbs; of finally noticing a red, chapped patch of skin between the edge of my coat and the cuff of my mittens; of climbing straight into a warm bath and feeling my feet and legs tingle, almost burning, with the warm/cold; and of snuggling into flannel with a mug of hot chocolate in hand.
And now I absolutely cherish “snow days”, because they’re like a gift- nowhere to go, nothing to do but play with my kids… we were expecting one yesterday, but it morphed into rain, which is way, way less fun…
my best memory is winter 2001/2002, my very first winter in Canada – coming from Europe seeing SO MUCH snow it was something, trust me (we barely have snow for X’mas with the global warming
/ )
I left my country, my family and friends on december the 17th but we were together, newlyweds, ready to begin our “new” life as “immigrants”.
I still remember the vision of white coat everywhere when we landed.
Now it’s been 8 years (next week), of course I miss my friends, family – but I feel at home here – and winter, despite the snow storm we’re having right now (I am stuck at home with DD) is the best season and I love snow ! ;o)
and I can’t wait to see your olympics sweaters !!! ;o) ;o)
My favorite snow memory of which there are very few since I have lived in So Ca for most of my life is waking up after our first night at the grand canyon to 8 inches of power snow covering everything. The day we arrived it was clear with long vistas across the canyon I don’t even know if snow was in the forcast. We stayed another night and the snow was mostly gone by then.
Thank you for your blog!
I grew up in the Midwest, and so have lots of snow memories! They tend to get muddled together, sadly, but I have a very clear image of looking out the front windows of the house I lived in as a kid and seeing the pine trees in our front yard all weighed down with a fresh, clean, bright white load of new snow, with lots more snow (not yet trodden in!) blanketing the whole front yard. It was an early snow, and so we were glad to see it!
One of my favorite snow memories is visiting my grandparents in the mountains of Idaho as a very small child. I remember being tucked snugly into one of the bunk beds in the chilly house late on New Year’s Eve, and hearing my parents laughing outside as they cross country skied under a full moon.
Oh my, snow many good memories!! I adore snow so it is very fun to hear others love it too. I had one quick question for you–you say you had breakfast before yoga class, I’ve always heard that eating is a no-no before class. I have trouble with inversions if I’ve eaten in the past couple of hours. Thoughts?
I was once an RA on duty, which meant I had to stay in my room. It started to blizzard and my friends and boyfriend at the time were across town watching Saturday Night Live, which I love. I impulsively decided to ditch my duties for a minute (there were 3 other RAs available so I didn’t feel too badly) and run across campus to their house through the blizzard. I was listening to the Amelie soundtrack on my iPod and when I got to the very middle of campus, the snow was up to my knees and I just laid there, completely alone for a few minutes. It was brilliant. It looked very much like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7317125@N06/2151150705/
I live in Central WI. When I was little (7 – 11) or so, we would build snow tunnels in the snowbank along the length of our yard that bordered our yard and the road. We lived on a corner so we had 90 degrees of tunnel, with a little Igloo house at each end and in the middle. All the neighborhood kids would come over and we’d play every night after dinner and on the weekends in those tunnels.
Now I live out in the country, next to two of my brothers. When my dad plows he makes a huge pile of snow between my house and one of my brothers and our sons build big igloos, even though most of them are in their teens. Traditions!!!!
And we just got 12 inches of the white stuff yesterday. Hurray!!!!
I love the first snow, especially when it is sticky and stays in all the trees. we have not had much snow this year. i love your photos, they are beautiful.
I have so many great snowy memories! I think my favorite is lying in the snow with my little sister in a hayfield, making snow angels and watching the beautiful sunset. It was a sweet, quiet, peaceful, beautiful moment that is pretty uncommon with kids.
When the drifts would pile up over the mailbox (which they did regularly growing up in Wisconsin) we would dig snowcaves and tunnels through them, with steps and slides on the outside. Like our own snowy version of chutes and ladders!
When I was first dating my husband, I lived on the very bottom of a HUGE hill. He was hanging out and it really started to come down. We decided to sled ride down the road I lived on. (think one steep gigantic hill, like, a 10th of a mile long) We layered up in some of my old workout clothes, and stole my grandmas pizza pans to use as makeshift sleds.
We stayed out a good long while, having a blast. After coming in to warm up, Dan realized he didn’t have his phone. Back out we went, with my phone, calling his phone, which was now buried in the snow somewhere. It was hysterical to hear the snow ring.
Its one of my all time favorite memories.
I grew up in norther Minnesota and always had snowy winters – we made snowmen on the frozen lake in front of our house. My grandparents and cousins would come up every couple of years to experience white winters and be with family. There was a huuuge hill near our house with a path leading straight down that was perfect for sledding, which my cousins, siblings and I couldn’t get enough of, despite the steepness of the hill. We’d then go inside laughing and tired and drink hot chocolate and tell our parents and grandparents everything. My grandmother, who has post polio and can’t walk far, much less climb stairs, decided that she would, just once, sled down the hill with us. So all of us grandchildren surrounded her and helped her up every step of the hill until we got to the top. To be honest, I don’t even remember watching her go down the hill, but I remember and treasure how badly she wanted to go outside and play in the snow with her grandchildren.
I grew up in Alaska. One winter when I about 9 years old we had a huge snowfall followed by some very cold, windy weather which caused the to snow to compact. My sister and I found we could walk on the 4 to 6 foot drifts. We were feeling mighty tall! The snow had drifted up to the kitchen window of our next door neighbor’s cabin. Fran opened the window one afternoon and invited us to come over. We walked up the drift and dropped to our knees in front of her window. She had been making pies and had some leftover piecrust she had turned into those wonderful cinnamon sugar roll-ups. Fran passed some out the window to us and we sat there in our snowsuits enjoying those tasty childhood treats.
Oh how beautiful! I love snow and we hardly ever get any down here. I do miss that about living in No.Va.
I grew up in the greater Rochester, NY area back in the 1950′s, when children gravitated to the snow, and the deeper it was, the better! Whether we had a playmate to join us or not, we were always OUT IN THE SNOW…!! A favorite memory of mine is that of joining my boy cousins, all of whom were older than me, sledding down a hill in the woods near where they lived. The outstanding thing about THIS particular hill was that it had a significant drop off at the end of it, and depending upon the depth of the snow, it was often difficult to tell just when you would get to that drop off! We careened down the hill on our red-runner sleds, hearts in our throats, waiting to “get” to the drop off…it was an amazing ride, complete with squeals of fear and bravado! We trudged back up the hill countless times, and when we had finally had enough, we came home and went immediately to the basement to peel off our snow covered clothes!! Our hands were beet red and nearly frozen, but we always went back the next day!! The joys of childhood were ours for the taking and we reveled in our time together, in our special families, and in our good health…it was a blessed time and I loved every minute of it!!!
Living in the Upstate area of NY my whole life I have MANY snow day memories. However I will share the latest one that just happened this past Wed. Hubby was out of town and the kids had no school. Soooo the Snow Blowing fell to me. Yes usually hubby does this job but ladies it is something we all should know how to do and isn’t really all that hard just time consuming. I kept thinking how I would rather be inside Knitting with something warm to drink in my favorite mug. Well evidently it was that kind of thinking that got me into trouble. Not realizing how close I got to the bushes and looking up at two of my little one’s playing in the snow nearby I heard this awful noise and than realized I had just snagged a bushes worth of Christmas lights. Not my finest moment and yes I will admit that the word that Ralphie says in Christmas Story was coming out of my mouth quite rapidly. Yes I can laugh now but while taking 30 min to carefully cut them out of the snowblower(after making sure the key was out and know way could it turn on) It wasn’t very amusing. So now I owe the kids some Christmas lights. Thankfully most of my snow day memories are of much calmer times and the last few years worth are of great ones involving my kids this one will sure be one for the story books. Next snow day I will sure be staying way away from the bushes and hopefully hubby will be home to do the job anyway. That way the snowman making will be left up to the kids and I. After all the best memories involve family don’t they.
My father, godfather and godmother’s husband always went ice fishing in the winter. A few Saturday’s, my sister and I, along with my cousins would join our fathers for the pre 7 AM ice fishing trip. We would each get a tip up to watch but would spend most of our time ice skating or huddling in the tent if it was really cold. If there was a lot of snow on the ice, shoveling it off used to happen first. We also used to build snow forts in the yard that were a lot of fun. Now, I prefer to sit in a warm house and just watch the flakes fall.
One winter when I was growing up, the snow just kept coming. Usually in a bad winter we might get a foot or two and it usually melts some in between. That winter in the 70s, we had over 3 feet on the ground. In shoveling out the driveway, we piled the snow high on the one side. It became a “mountain” about 6 feet high. Mt. “our last name”. My dad had some ancient skis that were just wood planks and a leather strap across the top. My brothers and I took turns “skiing” down our mountain. It has never been that high since.
That first photo looks a bit like a Thomas Kinkade painting. Beautiful!
I remember when we were kids, some older boys would come around with their snowmachines and tie our toboggans on the back. We’d jump on (2 on each toboggan) and roar off for the ride of our lives. They would hit a corner or a jump and off we’d go into the snow banks buried up to our necks or bums if we’d gone in head first. It was so much fun! Of course, looking back I realize how lucky we were not to get hurt or even killed, but how we’d laugh!
Hmmm…I’ve got two stories. Surprising for this So Cal girl, huh?
One winter my dad borrowed his brothers minivan and took us three kids up to Sequoia where there was a ton of snow. I was maybe 10 and had never seen so much in real life. We stayed in a cabin and we spent one long afternoon inner-tubing down hills. I always get freaked out when I start going too fast though and inevitably throw myself off half way down the hill. Ha.
The other was about 10 years ago when a friend and I drove up to SF, just for one night. There was some crazy drunken debauchery that night, but the next morning there were snow flurries as we nursed our hangovers over tea at a coffeeshop. It never snows in SF! I saw a guy walking down Valencia Street in the Mission district wearing shorts!
I remember that one year, when I was in junior high school (about age 14?…16 years ago!) we had so much snow that our yellow school bus got stuck in our neighbourhood and us older kids had to get out and push the bus. Fun times! Doesn’t seem to snow quite like that as much nowadays, but does get cold. (currently -30 Celsius)
Thanks!
My husband and I met at college in New Hampshire; we spent several snow-filled winters up North and have wonderful memories of them. Dartmouth has a huge green in the center of campus and every year erects a tree that rivals the behemoth in Rockefeller Center (as NYC residents, we see that every year now instead). One year we decided to spend the Christmas holidays together on campus, forgoing the long journey to his or my family until the new year. On Christmas day, we walked to campus, enjoying the thick, fluffy flakes pouring from the black coal sky. The campus was hushed, lit with the soft glow of the old-time street lamps. It was magical to walk right up to the massive tree and just be still, in peace.
Coming from Canada, the first time I saw it snow in France, it made me laugh to see everyone walking around with umbrellas but no boots !
My favorite snow memory is from the early 90′s. I was probably about 10 and I’d had a friend spend the night. We got a huge snowstorm for south Jersey and probably about 12 + inches of snow fell that night. At the time my dad had a friend who operated a snow plow and he was out about town working jobs the next morning. My friend managed to get home that day because he drove by and picked her up on his plow! (She didn’t live far from where we were). As a kid I remember thinking that was so cool.
we rarely get “big” snow here now but when I was a child I do remember being off school as it was so deep and walking in big drifts on the South Downs (southern UK) sometimes up to out waists but maybe they weren’t that deep!
When I was a little girl, we lived in Southern California, so we never got snow. But we started going up to my grandpa’s cabin in Crestline (near Big Bear) for holidays when I was about 9 years old. My favorite snow memories are of sledding down the big hill behind the cabin with my siblings and cousins. Such fun!
If you get a chance, I would love to hear how you keep your arms and hands going while you knit. I’ve been doing marathon knits in order to finish a few Christmas scarves, but my shoulder and hands get sore! With all the sweaters you do, I figure you must have a way to avoid this. If so, I’d love to hear your tips when you update about your beautiful Olympic sweaters!
Thanks, Lolly!
Hello Lolly,
Since I’m living in a part of Germany where rain is much more common than snow (and when it actually snows the whole region drowns in total chaos …), there are only a few memories about snowy days … When I was a kid it was all about sledding and snowballs and stuff like that …
But four years ago I went to visit a friend who lived in a very rural part of Germany. Lots of hills and forests and if you wanted to go to the nearest village you had to hurry not to miss the bus which came around every two hours …
One evening it started snowing in big, soft flakes while we were sitting inside, enjoying a good cup of tea and some pancakes. It snowed the whole evening and when it finally stopped, the whole world was covered under a white blanket. So we wrapped ourselves in lots and lots of layers of warm clothes and started out for a walk. It was around eleven o’clock in the night, the clouds disappeared and a full moon showed us the countryside in all its beauty …
We walked for more than three hours – uphill and downhill under the full moon and a sky bright with stars (something I don’t see very often where I live – too many lights). We walked in complete silence through a land that didn’t seem to be of this world. There weren’t any tracks in the snow apart from the one we left and the snow glittered in the light of the moon. It was so beautiful and my friend and me didn’t need to talk, it was a night to nourish something inside my soul …
Apart from my childhood memories this is my absolute favourite memory of a snowy day – or in this case night
Greetings,
Mirtana
one of my very favorite memories…we used to live in a small town in northeastern ohio, and nearly all of my school friends lived within walking distance. my very best friend lived just a few houses down. her mom was our girl scout troop leader and i spent many many days hanging out at their house. one night just a couple days before christmas, my family had gone to pizza hut for dinner (a HUGE deal!) and while we were inside a torrential snow began to fall…not so much a blizzard, because there wasn’t a lot of wind, but by the time we left the restaurant, there was already 3 inches of snow on the ground, and it was still coming down! we sang christmas carols on the way home, and as we passed my friend’s house, we saw that the entire family was out in the front yard each building their own snowman. my dad stopped and we rolled down the windows to shout hello and sing them a song, and our friends invited us all to join them…so we did! we parked the car, hopped out, and each began working on our own snowmen! by the end of the night, there were two families of snowmen in the yard, 5 for my family, and 6 for my friend… everyone had built a snow version of themselves. we then went inside and had hot chocolate and cookies (i think the adults had peppermint schnapps in their chocolate ;]) and sang carols & hung out until us kids started to fall asleep. every time i think of it it makes me smile & feel warm inside that we had those friends & neighbors and good times to remember. so much fun!! =]
Wasn’t the snow just wonderful? I don’t think I can remember a time in the DC Metro area that it snowed so early in the year — and for so long all day! I think the last time I truly enjoyed some amazing snow around here was almost 14 years ago — the blizzard of ’96. We got 5 feet and I was off from school for a week. We couldn’t even drive around our neighborhood and ended up walking a mile to have some wonderful food from Whole Foods.
One of my fondest memories of snow time fun was when I was a child of about 12 years old. My cousins, with whom I am close to, used to play outside in the snow. We would frequently go sledding, which we all loved. One day, we decided to go behind our house and up the hill. It was quite a hill to sled down and we were all overjoyed to experience it. We all piled in, there were 4 of us, with big Wanda in the back. Once we started, we were slow, but the packy snow beneath us gave way and off we went. Picking up speed, the wind blew Teddy’s hat off. It was exhilerating! Then, just like that, it was nearly over and we were headed for the brush below. Craig yelled, “abandon ship!” and out jumped Ashley, the youngest, followed by Craig, then Teddy… before I knew it I was the only one left and crashed into the bushes. I was covered from head to toe in bird ox. I stumbled to my feet, turned around, and saw my adorable young cousins staring at me in utter silence. I smiled and said, “Let’s do that again!”