Winter is here??

I grew up in a California town where snow was seen maybe once every few years. We are a warm weather family. That is generally the preference. 

Because of this, I never thought I'd feel a little bit cheated by a snowless winter. Here I am in Michigan, embracing the idea of frigid weather, buying snow gear out the wazoo, clenching my fists in the "wait for it" pose, and building up food storage for the day we get hit too hard to make it out the driveway...

...and there's no snow. 

Looking out my window right now, I see green grass and sunshine. I'm not sure whether I should jump for joy and run outside in my swimsuit Elle-Woods-style to get a little tan, or cower at the idea of another freakish storm to make up for this warm early winter. (Warm meaning high temperatures in the 40s.)

We did have one good storm in late November. Everyone loved it for different reasons. 

I loved it because I got to see my baby in a cute little hat that accentuates his round cheeks.

Matt loved it because he got to set up his new reverse snow plow and try it out with the truck. We have a long driveway, so an ordinary snow blower would take a good hour to clear it in the morning. This reverse snow plow is a rubber blade thing that attaches to the hitch of the truck and pushes the snow away as you back down the driveway. Everyone Matt told about it called him nuts to think it would work, but here is our driveway, at 2:00 in the morning when we finally finished assembling the blade, nice and clear in a few short minutes!

This is how Jude feels about winter...

A little bipolar.

Don't mind Jude's break dance pose there. He's just practicing for a little street competition.

Josh loved the snow because he got to use his "surf board" (as he calls his kick board for swimming) and make all kinds of tracks around the yard.

Seeing that only one side of the trees were covered with snow, Josh decided to try to help them out by putting snow on the backsides. It didn't stick very well, but he sure worked hard at it, as you can see by his "concentration tongue". This comes out a lot, and I'm afraid he inherited it from me.

He also helped me try out our new snow shovel by pushing more snow onto the driveway. Thanks, buddy.

We have a bunch of piles of dirt and sand next to our house from all the excavating going on around here for new houses. Cover them with snow, and we've got some pretty good hills to slide down.

This is the miniature ice skating rink that formed in our backyard. I couldn't resist cracking it.

And here is our house covered in snow. I quite like the white roof. Brightens it up a bit.

After that little storm, we got a few random days of light snowflakes, but nothing stuck enough to play in except once when we were out of town.

Instead, the weather has been more like this:

Yesterday we got home from the store and decided it was nice enough to play in the driveway for a while.

Jude discovered the addictive taste of sidewalk chalk,

and Josh threw ice cubes into the air and watched them crack on the driveway (one of his favorite outside games with Matt).

Jude made sure to clean up the ice mess by consuming the evidence, no matter how cold and red it made his fat little fingers.

This kind of day makes me homesick for summer. It's just a teaser.

Alright winter...bring it on. Let's get this over with!