So you know how I’ve been talking a lot about simplifying, and trying to get through the holidays in a calm and peaceful way? Well, last week was Georgia’s last week of school, the week in which I was going to calmly, peacefully wrap up all the things on my to-do list and catch up on work and housework before the school holiday break. But it started to snow, and Georgia got sick. Of the two days school was in session, she went to school one. I was feeling a lot less calm and much less caught up than I expected. And the snow kept coming, and coming, and coming.

Georgia’s kindergarten teacher told the kids about two “spells” to make it snow. We’ve had a spoon in the freezer, daring us to stick a tongue on its frosty stainless bowl for days. Georgia has been sleeping with her pajamas inside out since Thursday, and it has been snowing steadily since. We are under a blanket of beautiful, debilitating white stuff, and the whole region is at a standstill. Stores are closed, cars are unmoved under a foot of snow, and a steady stream of cross-country skiers has replaced the usual bicycle traffic.

Georgia is feeling heady. “I don’t think anyone knows I am doing this! I have the power to give us a white Christmas! We hardly ever have a white Christmas but we will this year!”

Hova and I went out in the haphazard snowglobe of a world Saturday to try to get every last thing we needed before the wintry mix of ice and freezing rain arrived. Sunday we made soup and cookies and chili, and postponed our Christmas visit to my Grandma, “Don’t even set a foot out in that snow," she said. "You just stay warm and safe!” We settled in. Georgia put an extra spoon the in the freezer to ensure that Hova wouldn’t have to go to work Monday, which he didn’t, and the city has just stopped. We built a snowbird and had a snow dust fight (it was too dry for snowballs) and came back inside for hot chocolate and snuggly reading time.

I had planned to go shopping at the most responsible store in town to make a little Christmas dinner for us, but we may end up having Christmas chili. Now I know all of you out in really snowy places are laughing, but check out these videos and you’ll see what happens in Portland during a snowstorm. The city doesn’t use salt and ice melters (save the trees!), and side streets don’t get plowed at all. It’s rare enough still to have this much snow, and it’s beautiful and magical to have a bit of snow at holiday time, but of course I am thinking about global warming and I wonder how future winters will fare. But for now, we’re tucking in and kicking back because we can’t do much else. And Georgia decided she's a little bored of being inside, so she put her PJs on the right way and took those dang spoons out of the freezer!

Photo credit: tshieldspdx