The Winter of Discontent, Made Glorious Summer

First snowball to the face, courtesy of Mama.

My friend Shakespeare wrote in Richard III “Now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York,” meaning times were sad at the loss of the King but made better by the new King Edward of York.  Living in Utah at the advent of the snowy winter season, I too marvel at how gloriously delightful the dreaded winter can be.

I was terrified of winter.  I still kind of am.  But finally, FINALLY I understand what all those idiots were saying when they parroted “I love the different seasons!”  I used to roll my eyes and brag about living in California where we really only have two seasons:  pretty warm and kinda cold.

My view right this second

I’ve discovered the allure of the seasons.  Today Hush took us all sledding at Sugarhouse Park.  As Silas tumbled out of his lap on the sled Hush said to me, “Last time I held Silas and went for a slide it was at the water park.”  With each season brings an entirely different set of activities, but also a radically changing lifestyle.  My life in the winter is completely different than in the summer and even in the fall!  I had no idea how well that would suit me (for the time being, don’t worry mom I won’t stay here forever).  I get bored and I like things mixed up frequently.

Obligatory temple lights night

The snow has fallen here and it seems as though it will stick.  I drove in the snow for the first time last week.  I sent my little children walking to school bundled up like Ralphie.  They built snowmen during recess.  Californians, can you imagine?  I had NO idea how people functioned in the snow if they weren’t going directly to the ski slopes and home again.  In the fall I asked the 6th grader who leads their walking group, “What do you guys do when it snows?”  She responded, confused, “We wear jackets.”  And so they do and off they march to school throwing snowballs.  Bizarre!

The animal hats are hits.  Jude loves shoveling snow…for now.

The day to day routine becomes a whole different event.  We’ve developed an excellent getting ready area system and have adapted to not going outside.  We spend the afternoons in front of the fire with hot chocolate.  I leave the house at most once a day, sometimes not at all.  We use different rooms more than others in the winter.  Also, I have been regularly congratulating myself at my foresight of marrying before the winter so that I have Hush to handle the stuff I have no idea how to do.  Men are good at winter: he handles the firewood chopping (people do that!  ha!), he scraped my car so I could drive it or most often he just drives me around as my personal winter chauffer.  He says things like “Winter is for Romance.”  We’re holed up in our happy warm house and he keeps the heat on so high it really does feel like glorious summer.

Winter is for Romance.