Allow me to sidetrack for a bit here. Ahhhh…my Kentucky friends and their snow days. You see, I spent most of my school years in Kentucky, where a kid can expect many a snow day every year. One or two inches equals a snow day for sure. Flurries will even likely get the kiddies a day off from school. Heck, I remember last year Liz told me there was snow in the forecast, so school was called off  just in case the storm showed up between 8 and 3.

Here in Utah we just don’t have snow days. In the 11 years we’ve lived here we’ve never even had a delayed school day because of snow. We just shovel our way out of our driveways,  slip and slide our way through the neighborhood streets, and hope to eventually make it onto a plowed road. All this in a place that averages about 40 inches of snow a year. If we shut down life for a few inches of snow, we may as well just hibernate with the bear population.

So back to Kentucky…I vividly remember the great and awful winter of ’78, my sophomore year in high school. (Wow, now that makes me sound like an “oldie” reminiscing about the good old days, walking to school, barefoot, in the snow, uphill both ways.) Anyway, school had been out for the usual two weeks or so for Christmas Break. It was the first week of January and we were just gearing up to go back to school when THE SNOW STORM hit. This one was a doosie, at least a foot, if I recall correctly. Now for KY. a foot may as well be 100 feet. All life goes to a stand still. School is called off, businesses are shut down, interstates are closed.

As a high school student dreading turning in an English paper (sorry Mr. C.) or taking a trigonometry test post Christmas Break, this was a magnificent thing…a snow day. However, one snow day quickly turned into several days, which then turned into weeks. When all was said and done, we missed school until the middle of February, the 13th to be exact. Yep, you read that right, I was out of school from about Dec 20th until Feb 13th. That’s about 8 weeks. Sound glorious? As a mom, probably not so much. As a kid, it’s the stuff of legends and dreams. That is until you have to pay the price for all of those snow days by going to school on Saturdays, extra hours on weekdays and into June a few weeks. Yep, not so fun then.

Fast forward to that present day facebook status about never having a snow day here in Spanish Fork, Utah. We got 24 inches of the white stuff that night. (Take a look at the completely awesome time lapse video at the top right corner of the screen.)

Guess what else we got? The first snow day for Spanish Fork in the 27 years they’ve been keeping track of things like that. And that morning when we realized school had been called off, the strangest thing happened to me. I actually started to cry, not because I was angry that my last Christmas prep day without the kids was now gone, but because I was so excited that my kids got to have the snow day they had always imagined and wished for. They got to have the snow day I had always hoped they’d have. And for some dumb reason that made me get all weepy. What can I say, I’m a sap that way.

That was a week ago. A few inches from that  snowstorm have melted, but never fear, we currently have 10 fresh new inches of snow and it’s not supposed to quit snowing until tomorrow afternoon.

I think to while away the day, since I’m NOT leaving this house, we will make some snow cream. Ever tried it? Never a time like the present.

Snow Cream Recipe:

◦4 cups of fresh snow (Just to be safe, I set out a big bowl when it starts to snow to collect safe clean snow.)
◦1/2 cup half and half cream (or whole milk)
◦1/4 cup sugar
◦1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl EXCEPT the snow.  Add the snow gradually and mix thoroughly. Mix until it’s  creamy.

~Kate

Enjoy!