snow day.....not

the #1 thing I'm missing about home right now is SNOW. living in warm SC is great, i never have to walk to class in the freezing cold, my windshield is never frozen when i get up, and i never have to wear more than a light jacket to class...but i would trade that all for just one snow day at home with lauren, justin, harry, and (probably) ben, just like the old days.

I would wake up slightly chilly and look at the clock.....9:30, thinking "either I'm really late for school or my spoon-under-my-pillow and pajamas-inside-out worked." I would jump out of bed and look through my window, thinking YES YES YES YES SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW!! i would walk into the den and see mom, she had turned off our alarms to let us sleep and was sitting watching Regis and Kelly.....something she loved but rarely ever did because she had to get us up and going for school and then begin her daily chores. I would always get up and watch with her....snow day tradition. harry would get up and then either mom or i would make breakfast (usually mom, lets be honest), and i would await the inevitable text from lauren "SNOW! so when are we going out to play!?"

All of us, harry, justin, lauren and i (and usually ben) get on all our snow gear (that usually take at least 10-15 minutes) and meet outside. the best thing was laying footprints in the fresh, untouched snow. we would make snow men, snow balls, go sledding on turner's hill and sometimes even on the street before the scrapers got there. when we got cold because the snow had soaked through our gloves and layers, it was time to go inside (either house) and have hot cocoa. we would get inside and take off all our snow gear and throw them in the dryer and sip hot cocoa by the fire and warm up. we had several classic staple snow day lunch meals....chili (i remember lauren always put 1 part chili, one part sour cream), rice, nachos, all of which surprisingly go great with cocoa. after lunch we would head back outside to finish whatever snow man, snow fort, etc that we were creating. harry always built the coolest snow forts. around 4 or so we would get so cold that we couldn't take it anymore, and head inside and watch movies and eat dinner and talk about the great day we had in the snow. and it usually took 3 or 4 days for the snow to melt.....so we could always put the day on repeat for a few days :)

Snow days are some of the best memories i have....but sadly now I'm having to realize that thats all they are right now....memories. i haven't seen a real snow since senior year of high school.....and I'm afraid its going to be at least another 2 winters without it again. BUT i will say that some of these great snow days happened in late december and early january so maybe lauren and i (and harry, he'll be in college soon) will get lucky and have a snow day over some winter break, it just hasn't happened yet. people here always say how they hate snow because it cancels everything and they can't drive in it and they hate the cold......but they clearly don't know how to see the beauty of it.

all these snow day pics were from my junior year....we did this 

every year i can remember, i just can't find more pictures!