First Snowfall of the Season.

We had our first snow yesterday.  After a long and lovely fall, Old Man Winter is here.  I'm not really a fan.  But as much as I really and truly dislike the snow and the cold myself, I do enjoy, dare I say love, watching the kids venture out for the first time of the season...with whoops and hollers and shrieks!  Yesterday, when I saw the early morning backyard of snow, my first thought was remembering how incredible a morning it was when Seth and Lizzie first saw and experienced (and ate) snow...and now here we are, entering our fifth winter of snow together (and Lizzie is still eating it...even with a dog in the family!).

This year, of course, we added the puppy to the mix.  She's nine months old now and still a baby, and she really didn't know what to make of this white stuff.  Before I let Charlie outside in the morning, I bundled her in her warm little plaid jacket (I really need to get pictures loaded onto my computer!) and then held her for a moment in the open doorway so that she could adjust to the chilly air and sharp wind. Then I put her down in the three or so centimetres of snow that had fallen in the night.  She took a step, shook each leg in turn, took another step and shook each leg again, and continued to make her way in this manner across the deck that she could no longer see.  (She was a great model of faith there...believing that the deck was there even though she couldn't see any part of it!)  Then, about a minute in, she took off running...and promptly tumbled over, head first, off of the low deck, and landed in the deeper stuff on the grass below. She looked down at her legs, buried in snow up to her armpits (what do you call armpits on dogs?), and then took off running...galloping, really.  She whipped around the yard a couple of times, did her business really quickly, and then raced back up the deck and to the house door and flew inside with a gust of cold air.  She was adorable...and shivering.  I wrapped her up in the blanket I was holding ready, and the two of us had a nice, fifteen minute cuddle in the library while she warmed up and licked me out of gratitude for bringing her inside.  (What a sweetie.)  I have no idea how she is going to get through the winter...especially because we had to shave her two weeks ago to even out the horrible shave she had over the bottom half of her body pre hip surgery.  We're not even into the super cold weather yet and she's all shivery and tiny looking.

Anyway, it was nice to see the kids spend some time out there...already busy building forts out of boards and plywood sheets and making hide-away spots with the big tarp.  And later in the day, Charlie voluntarily spent about 20 minutes outside with the kids, running around and biting the snow.  And so, sadly, we've arrived at this season again, and I'd love to just bury myself in an indoor hiding spot and never have to go out again...but I guess that's not so realistic, is it.

Ah well, time to pull out the remote start for the van.  Best. winter. gadget. ever.