Baby's first snow.

The first snow of the season came last night, and church was canceled this morning. My friends in flatter and drier climates would laugh to think that church could be canceled because of an inch of snow, but I assure you, around here it's a necessary precaution. Quite apart from the fact that the peninsula is mostly hills and the snow turns to snot as soon as the temperature approaches 30 degrees, people around here only get the chance to drive in snow once or twice a year, and each county keeps one (count 'em -- one) snowplow for situations like this. So our elders did the responsible thing and called off the morning service, and all the kids shouted for joy and went out to play in the snow.

Now I lost my taste for playing in snow when I turned sixteen, but since Niki had never seen snow before, I thought I would put my poignant dislike of cold and damp aside and let her get her first taste of winter. She seemed struck by it when I held her up to the window to see the new white world outside, so I bundled her up in several layers of clothing, her hat and mittens, and her Halloween costume, which is a close to a snowsuit as we have right now, though if global warming continues as it is, we may have to invest in a real one. Then I took her outside and put her down on the porch where the snow is cleanest. She wasn't too sure about this white stuff at first. It was cold, and it moved when she tried to touch it, and it stuck to her fingers.
She sat there patting it for a while. Then she leaned in another direction and patted that snow for a while. She rubbed her hands on her legs, leaned over and looked at the snow up close (I have all this in a video, but it would take forever to load).


Then she looked up and grinned at me. Look at how red her nose is.

All in all, I think Niki liked the snow. She was still happily playing in it when I decided that the cold was too much and brought her back inside.