First Winter

For the first time in nine years, I’m experiencing winter. It’s also our first Seattle winter, and it has been a bit of an adjustment for my body after living in California.

Some of the warnings from others have proven true. The days did get shorter quickly and seemingly without much of a warning. At one point, the sun started setting around 4:30, which felt a bit surreal (and, to be completely frank, a bit cruel). There were quite a few grey days, with a thick cloudy blanket covering the city. And then, there was the rain. We had a few impressive thunderstorms, but other than that, it was mostly drizzling and occasionally misting.

But then…

There was the snow. Our neighbors all exclaimed how rare it was, but we experienced about three days of nonstop, wondrous, perfect sledding and snowman-making quality snow. And the neighborhood went WILD. And let’s face it - we did, too.

For three glorious days, we lived in a winter wonderland. We walked through the park behind our house, and everything was delicately covered in powdery snow. We went sledding down the sidewalk and built a 6-foot-tall snowman. Two of our neighbors built a sledding ramp and invited the neighborhood kids to enjoy it. We excitedly texted our friends in other parts of the city, swapping photos of ourselves gleefully enjoying the unexpected - but very welcome - respite from what had been quite a common Seattle winter.

I’m going to hold onto those three days for awhile. They were a reminder to me of how snow can still bring out the child-like joy in me and bring up precious memories from ages ago. I love that our family’s first Seattle winter contained such magic.