Hate the Snow But Love a Snow Day
We’re on our second snow day in a row. Yesterday I did a deep clean of the house with the kids, and we made muffins, went sledding, and read Harry Potter. I got all of the laundry done. I spent every moment I wasn’t in the snow in my pyjamas, as did the kids.
I love snow days.
But I hate actual snow.
Image: Chelsea Gomez via Flickr
I don’t like the cold. Every winter, I thank the powers of the universe for pairing me with a man who has never asked me to go skiing. I don’t. like. skiing. Before you say anything, I will tell you that I gave skiing a try. Like a few tries. Like more than a few tries. But I couldn’t see the point of paying to go up a hill only to come down a hill. If the point is to get to the bottom, I would like to just cut out the minutes in between and stay at the bottom. I stopped skiing at some point in high school and have never had a desire to return to the slopes.
Sometimes I say that I want to go snow tubing, but I forget that means going out in the snow. And I don’t like the snow. I really don’t think I can stress that enough. Me and snow? Not friends.
I don’t like cold climates, though I lived in Madison for four years. I would never willingly choose to go somewhere cold. I mean, there are people I love who live somewhere cold, so I go and visit them in their cold home states. (Or in the case of one friend, she sends me all the way up to Canada! Windsor-freakin’-Canada!) But while I love going to places that get cold during their warmer months, such as visiting the aforementioned Canada in summertime (it’s divine!), I would never choose to go on a vacation to someplace snowy in the winter. When people tell me that they can’t wait because they just booked tickets for a ski vacation, I smile wanly and tell them that sounds fabulous. But really, that’s my version of hell. Hell isn’t hot. Hell is like Hoth.
I wear sweaters through the summer. Through the DC summer. Swampy, too-hot-to-breathe-according-to-some-people DC; I don’t think I’ve ever left the house without a sweater in tow in the summer months. I wear jeans to the pool. There are two pictures of me on the beach from two separate trips this summer; both wearing heavy sweatshirts over my t-shirt.
Did I mention I hate snow?
But there is nothing I love more than a snow day. Watching the snow falling outside. Not being able to go anywhere. Making sure all the flashlights have batteries. Wearing sweatpants and heavy socks and slippers. I love watching snow within a heated space with a panel of glass between myself and the substance. I mean, yes, for the sake of the kids, I will take them sledding and even take a few rides down the hill, cursing the snow as it seeps into my jeans. But after fifteen minutes, I’m done with snow and ready to go back inside.
Where it is cozy.
And there’s no homework. And no early wake-time. And no driving to activities. There’s just… sigh. Good books and hot chocolate.
21 comments
Oh, you could not have captured my thoughts better! I, too, do not enjoy the cold but I LOVE a good snow day. We had 3 in a row here a few weeks ago and, even though they shouldn’t have technically changed our SAHM-with-a-toddler routine, we took advantage and made the most of wearing pjs all day, baking, etc. I live in the midwest where we get a pretty decent winter and I try not to complain too much – I do live here after all and if I truly wanted to I could probably move. But today I’m just over it. Our old furnace is laboring to keep up with these sub-sub-zero temps and our house is chilly. I’m ready for just regular old cold-bu-not-miserable winter to come back. So, yeah, I hear ya – oh, and I always have a sweater in the summer too. 😉
Oh my goodness! I have the same views on skiing as well! My hubby does like to ski however I let him go and stay inside by the fire. Forget that mess lol.
Oh! Oh! We’ve been researching snow day safety all day. Because that’s important in Singapore. But we have a sick child, so it’s similar, and snow would at least give us something unusual to look at out the window, and we wouldn’t have to go out in it (unless said child made a sudden and remarkable recovery on account of the snow, which is likely).
You make Windsor sound like the North Pole, when it’s actually about as far south as you can get in Canada, lol. (Detroit is actually NORTH of Windsor.) Try Winnipeg or Edmonton in January & see what you think then. 😉
Your opinion of winter vacations in cold weather spots matches my views on summer vacations in hot weather spots. I know a lot of people who go to the Caribbean in the spring & summer. One of dh’s cousins honeymooned in Jamaica. In July. I guess it’s cheaper then, but really, what’s the point?? If I’m going to Florida or the Caribbean, I want to go NOW — January/February, when the temps are the coldest & my post-Christmas winter blahs are at the peak. My parents are going to Arizona for the month of March & want to know if we’re coming. I’m not sure. It can still be cold & snowy in March, but by then, things are usually looking up & the urge to flee has mostly passed. Plus in March, there’s all the spring break travellers to cope with/avoid. :p (One of the advantages of not having kids is not having to plan your vacation schedule around school breaks.)
I tried downhill skiing. Once. On a junior high school trip. Let’s just say it didn’t go well. No broken bones, but I did break my glasses, wind up spending the entire day in the chalet & made an idiot of myself in front of the entire school in the process. I’ve also cross-country skiied (although not in many years) & I liked that a lot better. I used to take figure skating & live at the rink when I was a kid, and we loved to play outside in the snow, build snow forts and take our sleds down the biggest hill we could find (which, being on the Prairies, usually wasn’t that big, lol). These days, though, I’m with you, I prefer to stay inside & read a good book with a nice cup of tea at my side. 😉
I wish adults got snow days. 🙁 I have had two “snow days” in 23 years in this house… both times after huge blizzards when we couldn’t even get the car out of the driveway, let alone out of our little street, & the buses and trains were’t running. It does seem to me that schools cancel much more frequently these days than they used to. I don’t remember school being closed for bad weather very often when I was a kid. Buses cancelled or leaving early for the farm kids, yes, school cancelled outright, not too often. Living in town, school was usually open & we were expected to be there, even though we usually didn’t wind up doing too much.
Thank you! I mean I just don’t get it. When I hear that someone is willingly, willingly I said, booking an Alaskan cruise…I just can’t. In my mind (and on occasion out loud) I curse someone for taking hard earned vacation time and money and supporting a cause I just cannot rally around; the cold. It feels like we’re egging it on to go so far as to seek it out doesn’t it.
On the rare occasion that I have been invited to climb a large hill by foot or worse yet, on a porch swing hooked to a wire and then fling my body (a body which cannot even enter a doorway without one shoulder making contact with the door frame mind you) down a large icy hill while strapped to two wooden boards I just assume they are joking and ignore the request. I mean it has to be a joke right.
Enjoy every second of you snow day though. Like you, I can get behind a cause that supports my love of pj’s.
I enjoy watching it snow. I even enjoy shoveling snow (as long as it’s not too cold). But that’s the first 3 hours or so, and after that, I’m done with it. We had snow day #7 of this school year yesterday. For the first two, my daughter was excited. After that, she said “This means they’ll make us go to school longer!” That’s quite a realization for a 1st grader.
I don’t get snow days from work (well, we’ve actually had a couple in the last few years – that’s very unusual – but they’ve been on days I had to be off anyway), so I don’t enjoy them much.
I have to disagree. I don’t like being cold, but I do love both snow and snow days. Unfortunately, where we are, there’s not much by way of anything except a touch of cold now and then. We do get ice and that I dislike profusely 🙂
I can stay outside in the snow for hours with the kids, but I can’t do this: “I did a deep clean of the house with the kids.”
Kudos on a successful snow day.
I don’t even have pyjamas, but I do like snow. I love ice skating and my heart breaks a little when the ice melts again.
I like hot tropical weather as well. Or a windy day at the beach. A Swedish colleague once said: there is no bad weather, just bad clothes….
I love hearing opinions about snow and winter. Because we get snow so rarely, it is a complete novelty to me. So I don’t know if I like it or not. And I would have loved to learn to ski. (I’ve ski-ed once.)
But I’m with you on the cosy, stay-inside-and-watch-the-snow-fall (though I’ve managed that only once or maybe twice in my life) day. I also love a good storm, as long as I’m warm and dry inside.
I’ve been to DC in the summer. Seriously, you wear sweaters?
Hm. Interesting thoughts. I want to be a skier – it fits a certain idea of who I wish I was. But I am too much of a scaredy cat on the least bit of a hill. This vacation while the kids took skiing lessons I went snowshoeing and loved it. Cold and snow are a novelty to us, but I probably wouldn’t want to live in a snowy clime. Too, well, cold.
I’m not a big fan of extreme temperatures either. Extreme heat, extreme cold.
Ah, I do love heat, but at the moment would happily swap for a week or two of cold. We’ re experiencing summer at the moment- hot and humid. Its not the heat as much as it is the lack of cooling down at night- I grew up in the desert where it is hot during the day but the temp drops at night. Not here.
We are talking of moving to colder climes and G says that he wants cold because he doesn’t feel it, as he spent 10 years in Melbourne. I try not to laugh. Most Australians ( apart from Tasmania) have never experienced the kind of cold a proper northern hemisphere snowy winter can be- and I didn’t live in any of the really cold spots!
I do love to ski, and snowboard, but I grew up bing able to for the day- get up early ski all day and drive home at night, the next day was in much warmer weather. In the spring we could ski in t shirts
I’m not a fan of snow either. Not really a fan of the summer heat but I will still take that over snow.
I live in Southern Illinois and LOVE snow days…but only if I can stay inside in my PJ’s next to the fireplace. The second I have to venture out in it, or it starts to get that dirty, yucky look, then I don’t like it 🙂
I love snow but don’t like skiing…I have “cricket-fear” of bees & birds & such so find the warmer months anxiety ridden.
Next time you’re heading to Windsor, we must meet! I’m not far from there!!
I like snow days as long as there’s enough milk in the house and I haven’t already been housebound for 2 weeks of Christmas break… I grew up in northern IL but after nearly 15 years in St. Louis, I prefer heat — even sticky STL heat — to cold. And slush is an abomination. I could not live any farther north than I currently do, unless it was a different climate altogether (i.e., Pacific Northwest). When we visit my parents back home, I’m always cold and underdressed and therefore miserable. DH, who is from this area, hates cold weather and shares manymanymoons’ opinion above of Alaskan cruises.
I don’t know how to ski and wish I had learned before now, because in the past year or so my fingertips and toes get cold very quickly.
What I hate the most about being outside in deep cold is its effect on my neck and shoulders. The hunched-over, trying-to-stay-warm posture, with bra straps sliding down beneath the heavy layers of a coat and sweater.
You and I could be twins. I do not ski either. I tried. And I do not see the point. My friends are all driving a few hours to go skiing with their kids. I am content to be down where I am without snow. I too am happy that my hubby never asks me to go skiing. I too have to wear a sweater in the summer time. Whatever you did with your kids in the house in your PJs sounds wonderful. Whatever it is to keep you cozy. 🙂
Next time you’re in Windsor, give me a shout! 🙂
Hey…snow is a love/hate thing. It cost me two days pay here in NYC this week and three or four days since 2014 began. This never happened when I lived in Nashville, TN – but I could not earn the money I am in Brooklyn now. The two snow days I had off this week because of f-kin’ snow, I enjoyed sleeping and napping in-between business calls, were priceless!
“I would like to just cut out the minutes in between and stay at the bottom.” Yes this. I could be reading a book instead of going up and down the hills.
Why don’t you come visit me in June? Sweaters and jeans are just fine. I’ll hide the mayo. Bonus: too early for crickets!