Another snow day

When we first moved here, everyone hoped and prayed for snow days. Snow days did not exist in snowy Munich, so they were sort of a novelty item. This year though snow days are not a novelty item. We started having snow days before Christmas and continued throughout January. Luckily, the kids had a snow day shortly after our San Diego trip. We came home, went to school (and Tori missed much of the day getting her driving license) and then we had a snow day, which allowed all to catch up on the missed work.

Our most recent snow day was in late February. We made the most of it. I forced the kids out into the snow to play. Our younger neighbor kids make snow men on snow days while our kids just do homework (or in one boy’s case, play video games). We had a leisurely pancake breakfast and took the dog on a long wet hike through the nature center near our home. The kids caught snowflakes on their tongues and cracked the ice on puddles along the trail.  And then came home and returned to homework. Sigh.

The kids no longer even want snow days. All report they are missing too much in school and the work just piles up. Because of the most recent snow day, one of the kids had four tests on one day. The rumor on the street is that any more snow days will result in the school district taking away days from our spring break. (We already have flights purchased so I am not sure how that will go).

The silver lining of this late winter snow is our hot tub. Ever since we moved here, the hot tub has been barely functional. On and off, with countless services visits. Finally, the culprit was determined to be the electrical hook-up. This got fixed in mid-February and the hot tub now works! Scrapping the snow and ice off the hot tub is a much easier job than doing the same off the minivan. And the kids are outside!