New Years around our home is usually pretty dull. While living in California, we would celebrate New Years on New York time or Texas time; that way our kids were in bed shortly after 9pm or 10pm Pacific time. Many or our New Years celebrations included banging on pots and pans with wooden spoons, or maybe the snaps that you throw on the ground and sparklers, or making homemade caramel popcorn and making a pillow pit in the living room as we watched the kids choice of movies.
A few days after Christmas one year, we rented a cabin in the mountains of Southern California with another family, whose kids were just a bit older than ours. We brought movies, popcorn, tons of pillows and blankets for our New Years Eve adventure. Our friends brought snow clothes for our kids that were too small for their kiddos. The thought was we would use the snow clothes while we hiked the mountain side, although it was very cold, there was no snow to be found.
The first night was amazingly cold. We ended up starting a fire in the fireplace to keep everyone warm. The next morning, to our surprise, it began to snow. It snowed, and snowed, and by the time the kids were up and running around, we had at least four inches of snow. The kids were thrilled. We bundled up the kids and headed out to play in the snow. We bundled up our son in a little snow suit. He waddled though the snow like the ‘Michelin man’. The poor guy could hardly bend his knees to walk, much less bend his arms. Our daughter on the other hand, her and her friend looked like little ‘Snow Princesses’.
Over the next few days we had a blast! We watched bowl games, played games, we played in the snow, and watched more Disney movies than we could count. I think one of the kids favorite things that trip was not just playing in the snow, but running out on the back porch in their bathing suits, wrapped in a towel, in the freezing snow, and crawling into the steaming hot water of the hot tub. The snow made our trip so much more fun. We were so blessed to spend time in the mountains with our friends; the added fun of the snow was an amazing unexpected blessing.
‘And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.’
2 Corinthians 9:8
