Punxsutawney Phil may know something

Yesterday, Punxsutawney Phil, the famed groundhog of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania predicted 6 more weeks of winter. For those international readers of mine, who are not familiar with this famous weather prognosticator: Every February 2nd, on Groundhog Day, they drag this poor groundhog out of his warm and cozy hole in the town of Punxsutawney, so they can gather in the town square and request this creature to foretell the future. According to a 123-year-long tradition, if Phil sees his shadow, we will have 6 more weeks of winter; if he does not, we are sure to have an early spring. (For those of you, who want to get a better idea of this bizarre tradition, watch the movie Groundhog Day, one of my favorites.)

So Phil saw his shadow and you can guess what we woke up to this morning: SNOW. This is only the second time it snowed in these parts, and this is definitely the most snow we've gotten this winter - all of 1-2 inches!

This snow came after an unusually warm and sunny day, on which Caleb and I spent a delicious 2 hours at the local park for the first time in months, soaking up the Vitamin D in our shirt sleeves. This snow came a day after I commented to my friend that "Really, I am sooo over snow now; now I just want spring to come," even though I had looked forward to snow all winter, so that Caleb and I could enjoy some winter weather fun.

But truth is, I had given Snow a chance, and Snow blew it. Snow could have made its appearance in December or January, but now it is too late for Snow... it is now time for Daffodils and Crocuses. It is now time to spend sunny days at the park with toddlers who are thrilled at the scent of spring in the air, the sun on their cheeks, the rediscovered swing. It is most definitely not appropriate for Snow to finally arrive on a day that followed such a day as this, filled with the Promise of Spring.

Snow has a mind of its own. It fell overnight while we slept unknowingly in our warm beds and surprised us with its white cover as we opened the shades at 5:30 am.

Snow was greeted with hooplas and hollers of HÓ! HÓ! SNOW! CALEB, LOOK! SNOW! MOMMY, SEE? HÓ! And later, the lacing up of shoes and the enthusiastic, pure joy of two people who have not yet played in snow this year.

Snow is very lucky to have such loyal subjects, I must say.

(Below, you shall find some of our Snow Day pictures.)