Chandler’s First White Christmas

For his first Christmas Chandler got a lot of great gifts, but probably the best gift of all was getting to have his first experience in the snow. We spent Christmas day with my parents in Elsah, IL. We arrived two days before that and the weather was showing no signs of snow. The weatherman said there might be flurries on Christmas morning but we didn’t really believe him. I went to bed on Christmas Eve with no expectations of a White Christmas.

But as I woke up that morning and went downstairs I was pleasantly surprised. Santa pulled it off! The focus of the day switched from opening Chandler’s presents to bundling up and playing out in the snow.

I was really curious to see how Chandler would respond to the white flakes as they fell on his face. It was so much fun to watch him react. He gave a mild look of surprise but never seemed to be upset as the snow landed on him. I scooped up a small bit of snow and held it up to his mouth to see what he would do. Like he does with everything, his hands pulled the snow closer to him and he put it in his mouth. He seemed to like that too. Then we set him down in the snow and held his hands so he could “walk” for a bit. He was looking all around him as if to say, “I was just here yesterday and it looked totally different out here. What happened?”

We took advantage of the great photo opportunity and were ready to head back in to warm up when my dad took Chandler and said, “Let me do what I do best.” He then set Chandler down on the bench (pictured above) and set up the best photo of the day. Chandler really seemed to be enjoying the snow. We took some great photos, and then Chandler lost his balance and kind of fell face first into the snow on the bench. He wasn’t thrilled by that part.

This experience reminded me of a story I’ve been told from my own childhood. Apparently when I was about 2 years old we lived in New Jersey and there was a blizzard that kept us stuck in our house for over a week. At one point my dad bundled me up, took me outside and just dropped me right into the snow. It was so high and so thick that I sunk right into the snow and it came up to my arms. It seems that I have inherited a lot of my father’s parenting techniques.

Do you have any good stories about your child’s first snow day? Share them in the comments section.