Frozen

Last year's hit movie has become an appropriate theme for the past 14 days.

It has been cold. And snowy. Really snowy. I half expect to see Elsa and Anna walking down School Ave.

We've been hit with a winter storm each of the past two weeks, with another one apparently on the way for Monday. We haven't lost power, but the kids have been home more than the have been at school. And the snowbanks here are unbelievable. Maybe we're living on Hoth instead of Arrendelle.

It started a couple Saturdays ago when, after a cold but precipitation-free season, a few inches of snow finally fell. It was fun. We all wandered outside and built two snowmen (George and Olaf, of course) and had a little snowball fight, before calling it a day and retreating to the warmer temperatures inside.

Celia is happy to meet George again.

George, Olaf, Natalia, Andres, Lucia.

Even the first big storm was an enjoyable novelty. It dumped a foot of snow on us Monday night, burying George and Olaf, and also canceling school on Tuesday. (The call had been made early due to the storm's anticipated severity, which was described as "potentially historic.") Good decision. Andres and Celia had managed to finagle a sleepover at a friend's house the night before, so with someone else responsible for clothing and feeding them for the morning, I enjoyed my coffee and walked to work early, leaving Natalia at home with only Lucia. (I was the only person in the office that day.) Snow kept falling throughout Tuesday, and Wednesday became a snow day as well. More fun for the kids. Another day of work for me, though.

I'm not a winter person, but snow can be fun, especially a good dumping of it. An even coating of snow makes everything look more beautiful. It inspires conversation, too, between neighbors and coworkers and random people on the street. Everyone may be complaining about shoveling--but they seem to enjoy the complaining. The cold brings us together.

There's something particularly New England about drinking iced coffee in a snowstorm.

Of course the snow is good for sledding, too, so on Sunday I took Andres and Celia to the Gore Place for a fantastic complaint-free hour of slipping and sliding down the big hill.

Celia surprised me, too, as she turned out to be the bigger daredevil of the pair. A few runs into our visit, I pointed out a small jump that someone had built along one of the sledding tracks. I asked Andres if he wanted to go down it on his sled. He declined. I asked Celia, who followed her brother's lead. But then she thought about it for a brief moment, and said, "Actually, ok."

I was surprised. Celia is typically not one for the cold, and I took it as a mark of her maturity that she was willing to try something that even her older brudda didn't want to do. So she trudged up to the top of the hill, lied down on her sled, and I gave her a little push down towards the jump. She went up, over, and down, and gave a scream of delight when she reached the bottom. "I can't believe it!" she yelled. "Aaagh I want to do it again!"

Having seen his sister survive the journey, Andres decided that he wanted to give the jump a shot too--so down he went, smiling the whole way.

Loving the jump!

Face-first was the only way to go.

Back up the hill for another run.

Best buds.

They took turns on this run for the next 45 minutes. Celia's glee never waned, and she hit the ground hard enough on most jumps that she often lost her hat. She screamed with joy at the end of every run. I tried one run too, though I somehow got turned around and hit the jump going backwards--which made for a painful landing. I went back to taking pictures after that.

We went home, had hot chocolate, some of us watched the Super Bowl, and then everyone went to bed buzzing from the game's final play. Another foot of snow dropped on Eastern Massachusetts while we slept, gifting the kids another snow day. (Again, I enjoyed the relative quiet at work.) The snow kept coming. By Monday night it was clear that nothing would be clear the next day, so school was once again cancelled--the fourth snow day in two weeks.

Now, just as we are beginning to fall into the routine of school once again, a weekend is almost upon us. Then more snow on Sunday and Monday--another foot, by one prediction! I don't know where we are going to put it. There's already a five-foot pile in our front yard. The good news? Andres, Celia and I are going to build an amazing snow fort this weekend.