First Wonderful Snow

Today is our first snow of the season. It started last night, actually and its a full-out blizzard with wind whistling through the door and snow whipping around outside. Last night Shelly and I went grocery shopping and OF COURSE the ENTIRE CITY was at that one grocery store. Big storm looming, holiday approaching... I'm surprised we even found a place to park! When we left, I told Shelly it was like Disney. "What? Disney is a grocery store?"  Everywhere you walk is crowded, can't move around without bumping into someone, waiting in long lines for hours on end. I don't think she believed me.

Anyway, today there is this beautiful storm blowing around outside, and here we are inside, all on our own activities and it seems sublime. Perfect. Kids are playing at their own stuff, I'm cozy on the couch reading a book and enjoying some warm tea. Shelly's writing on her blog. Archer and Eli are playing Monopoly and I hear Archer explaining the nuances of trading properties as they go through the game together. The ELECTRONIC version of this game is a LIFESAVER! I may have to permanantly hide/retire the "actual board and colored paper money" version of this game. When the thousands of dollars of collered bills come out there's always some disaster in store.

So why am I making a point to tell you about this? It seems like so often, in this perfect little house of ours (which is plenty big for five people), someone is always under foot or getting on someone's nerves. There are so many reasons to argue. But today. ALL DAY so far (and we're already past lunchtime!), there has been NO arguing. On a day when we're stuck inside, I haven't made up any rules about what rooms each person has to stay in/out to avoid the other person who also needs to... Whatever. We're enjoying each other's company. And that makes it a perfectly PERFECT snowy day!