snow

Let me tell you, I am SO OVER the cold. It has been cold, snowy, and icy and I don't like it one bit. Church has been canceled twice recently because of the ice, and other plans keep getting moved around too. But at least it wasn't like last year, when my dentist appointments kept getting snowed out! Really, though, the worst part has been the ice left on the ground that makes getting to and from our car a death trap. It hasn't melted all the way for weeks, and since it's a grassy hill, there is no shoveling it. Our spot in the parking lot is in the shady corner, so our car is surrounded by a sheet of ice. Home Depot has been sold out of rock salt for a while...

Most of the time it has been too cold to play much in the snow, but there was one perfect day...one of the Sundays...the snow was perfectly packable, and the day warmed up to 50 or so degrees. I would take more snow if the days were like that!

Our first order of business, of course, was to make an awesome snowman. We were able to put a snowman kit that my godmother Laurie had sent to us to good use! The first snowfall after we got it was too powdery to build an upright snowman, so we had had to make him flat:

But this time around, the snow was VERY wet and packed beautifully. So with my skillful sculpting and Jed's deft decorating, our handsome snowman came to life:

We didn't even need coats, just hats, gloves, and snow suits the entire 3 hours we were outside. Jed even enjoyed rolling around in the snow and making a "family of Jeds" (imprints of himself in the snow).

We helped my landlady and her son shovel much of the sidewalk and parking lot (I should have shoveled around our car more, and not just the communal areas!). Jed was particularly useful:

A week and a half later, we had a bout of sleet that left everything frozen or with icicles attached. I put these pictures on Facebook and posted, "Oh Queen Elsa, please return from your place of refuge to reverse this curse!"

It was at least beautiful, if cold!