Snow

I am completely amazed at how such a simple thing like snow can bring such pure delight to the hearts of my kids. They were bursting at the seams waiting to get out and play in the fluffy white cold that was blanketing our yard.
Unfortunately, I am also amazed at how such delight can be turned into the biggest tantrum ever thrown by an unnamed two year old in a matter of minutes. She went from enjoying her snow angels to screaming in cold pain so fast I barely had time to sit down the camera. Now, for you mothers out there, you know in your gut that snow simply means there will be half an hour of preparation (including digging out hats and gloves and extra socks) for only 15 minutes of play, only to be followed by another half hour of work cleaning up the sopping wet clothes and dripping snow that gets tracked inside. And I say mothers, because fathers tend (at least in my experience) to be nothing more than grown up kids who require just as much of the preparation. :) But all the work and wet and whimpering goes away as we are all warm and dry again by the fire. Our delight has now turned to the fluffy white marshmallows in our hot cocoa. For those of you who have braved all the "delights"...I lift my mug of warm goodness...cheers!