We woke this morning with a start as a crack of thunder rolled through the sky directly above our house. You might have thought we would open the curtains to be greeted with driving rain - but we were not. A white blanketed world greeted us.
I wandered, bleary eyed, into the children’s rooms to see if they were okay following the thunderclap - and of course had our first opportunity to show them what had happened in the world outside their cosy bedrooms.
As we drew back the curtains, the wonder and excitement in their voices as the little chorus of “Wowand we were through breakfast, and heading out to make snowmen, wrapped in jumpers, coats and woolly hats. Our house is in the corner of a green, so they effectively had an entire field of snow to play in.
I couldn’t help noticing we were the only people out there. The Playstation generation were nowhere to be seen. I was more pleased than you can imagine that we were all out in the snow, and yes we were cold and wet, but we were having fun. The little ones were doing their best to throw snowballs at each other, and learning all about “cold and wet” along the way.
I saw a video on YouTube the other day, where somebody was on about the 5 things children should be allowed to do that they are not any more - things like playing with fire, having a pocket knife, and so on. Perhaps “let them get really cold and wet in the snow” should be added to the list.
You only appreciate how warm your house is once you’ve been out in the snow for an hour or so.
Unfortunately the gigantic snowman I helped them make no longer exists - the eldest decided to do some pretty spectacular karate kicks on it…
postscript - I am surviving on a cocktail of nurofen, herbal tea, honey and chocolate.