Thankful Thursdays are back!

This week, I am thankful for SNOW!! It’s winter, it has been cold enough out there for it to fall on down like crazy!  And fall, it did; but it waited all the way until January!!  Tuesday January 6, Washington DC area’s first snowfall of the season!!

Kids get to play in the snow, they get off school, as does government.  This snow was not that too entirely bad, though days later some counties in N. Virginia are closed simply because of how cold it is.  How cold it is!? 19.6 degrees out on our deck right now… but I’m sure people who are used to it up in like northern states like Minnesota, who are thinking us northern Virginianers are just too inexperienced to handle the snowy cold weather and all that comes with it.

 I was excited to see the snow fall down, but I was walking my little Chazz dog in his unbelievably cute coat the next day and I slipped in the ice.  As I hit the ground, his leash got away from me, and my little doggie ran across the street!  I got up, only to slip again, and my right hand was oozing blood.

I showed up to church on Sunday wearing my good luck snow day necklace, told my pastor how I got the injury, and he looked like I was crazy wishing for more snow.  Later afterwards when I was reflecting on our conversation, I saw the silliness of this 33 year old’s wish to hope for snow.  Although this is a minor setback, it phases me not.

It is now Tuesday January 27 and we had the most gorgeous snowfall again last night.  The blinds in the living room were pulled up so that we could see the snow fall across the street in the illumination of the streetlamp.  And the snow continued all while we were sleeping.  In the morning it was pleasing to see that blanket of snow on the deck creeping all the way up to the ledge of where the glass meets the aluminum on the door, and even nicer to look outside in front and see the street blanketed in snow, and no footprints on the snow, save for a squirrel or a little bird hopping by.

The ice underneath the snow is very slippery, as Chazz ventured across the big street next to ours, the cars that have dared to race down the road this early morning or late last night have caused the snow to melt a bit leaving icy car prints among the snow.   Although throughout the window I look in the midday sun and can finally see the black pavement with smears of icy white on the edges of the road.

The mere joy derived from gazing outside the glass back door and seeing the last of the flurries or the winds rustling the tree branches and more snow dancing throughout the sky and landing on the deck.  This is where gratitude and the appreciation for beauty of the winter is truly derived.  The gift of winter delight in which God has rained down on us.