At Christmas my children received these great new sleds from their grandparents to go sledding in their backyard on one of the best sledding hills around. They were pretty bummed when there wasn't any snow that day to try out these latest Plexiglas sliding devices culled from parents' nightmares. "When's it gonna snow, Mom???!!" they'd yell in frustration. Which basically led into a discussion about how I'm neither a groundhog nor a weatherman and cannot predict weather; about the teacher saying global warning is to blame; and finally some boundless theories regarding Jack Frost being asleep somewhere in Fairyland and forgetting to bring Winter this year. Maybe he had one too many of those nectar drinks Tinkerbell serves up now and then for her inner circle? Who knows for sure? I promised them that by the time the new year came and my son's birthday arrived mid-January there surely would be snow.

Like Joan of Arc, I was burned at the stake by both of my little darlings when my son's birthday came and went and STILL there was no snow to try out those new sleds upon. "But, MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMM," he angrily cried. "You SAID that it would snow by my birthday!" They then teared up looking at their sleds, snow pants, and snow boots each day it didn't snow, thinking their mother was a stinkin' liar and Jack Frost was surely dead somewhere in a gutter.

I myself was loving the fact that I didn't have to shovel out the driveway, put salt out, drive 5 mph to work for fear of being killed, or step in a patch of melty snow someone tracked while wearing my dry warm socks. This mild winter was going pretty well even if I knew that it eventually was gonna snow; and I was prepared. I had already stocked up on a dozen winter hats for my son, hoping they would last about two weeks before he lost them all. I got the salt out and the shovels ready. This year I even got kid-sized shovels and planned on instituting a new household law that goes along the lines of, "Shovel the walk or go live with grandpa ... and he'll REALLY put you to work."

But then it happened — a Snow Day on a Saturday when I didn't have any work or errands to run and all the chores were complete. And oh, what a perfect Saturday snow day it was! The kids were happy playing in the snow, the laundry was all done, the house clean, food was stocked up in the kitchen, a stack of movies were rented for the weekend. Oh yeah... Momma even had a day to kick back in her PJs and veg to a chick flick and a pile of junk food. How rare is that? It was so eerily perfect I almost questioned whether I was in an alternate universe somehow. The last time I had a moment's peace I was pregnant with the kids. Since then, it's been a roller coaster of parenting hell with minor lulls of "Awww, aren't they cute" to make me keep from killing them.

The cake topper was that the kids shoveled the walk AND the driveway and did so HAPPILY. Not to mention the fact that they looked adorable in the snow, sledding on their new sleds with pink cheeks and runny noses. So I got on my boots and joined them in some snowball fighting, sledding, and snow angel making. Being all rejuvenated from my chick flicks, my newly polished toe nails and a facial, and the kids all happily tired out from a rambunctious day playing in the snow, we settled in with warm cups of hot cocoa and happy souls.

Hmm... Maybe winter isn't all bad after all. It has its moments.