There’s a wonderful tradition in the family I married into. For 40ish years (try and pin it down and things get fuzzy), my wife’s family and two other families and assorted friends have been gathering for several days over New Year’s. I’ve been attending for almost 20 years now. Children have grown, married, and had children of their own, etc.
This year we were at Hallelujah Farm in New Hampshire. The house was built in 1776 and has all of the charm and quirks associated with that. There are glorious wood floors and exposed beams. Warped doors that don’t close and bathrooms located where you have to travel through someone else’s bedroom to reach them. All of it surrounded by acres and acres of farm land and woods.
We always hope for an epic snowstorm that will strand us in our little paradise for another day…or two…or more. That almost never happens and did not happen this year. But, we had enough snow to play in. It was the powdery stuff on the first day, but the sun was out and the temperature was rising. By the second day, we had the sticky stuff that is perfect for having snowball fights and creating snowpeople.
I love creating stuff with snow. Partly just for the carefree fun of it. Partly because the transience of the form interests me. In the act of creating, you know that what you are making will last a very short time. Unless you live somewhere much colder than I do, I suppose, but then you might not have such good snow to work with.
On that particular day, we wound up making a lot of different snow creations. Some of them were classic snowmen, but most were not. One of my friends started us off in a new direction by making a snow owl perched in a tree. It looked like this:
And that got the kids and I going to see how many different things we could make. We created a snow rabbit:
A snow tree spirit:
A snow porcupine:
A pair of snow mice:
A snow alien with tentacles coming out of its head:
A snow robot:
And a snow thing:
There was also a great big snow dragon (no good pics, sadly), a snow man up in a tree house, and a migrating herd of tiny, Japanese style (only two segments) snow creatures. It was glorious fun beneath a bright blue sky. A “catalogue day” as my friend put it.
And now my family and I are home again, where the snow has melted and frozen into the useless icy stuff and there are lots of bare patches. We’re watching the forecast and watching the skies, eager for the next significant storm to arrive so we can play again.
Let it snow!
What a grand tradition – and what wonderful creations!
Thanks, Tina. Alison has a great idea for a story that has its genesis in the gathering. We’ll get around to writing it someday.