Winter Wonderland

Our first snow!

Not just our first New York snow, but for Nathan, Noah and I it was our first EVER snow. What a special moment to be shared by the 3 of us.

Walking through the cobblestoned streets of SoHo together as the first snow flakes fell. Except that Noah was asleep, and therefore oblivious. Still it was romantic and beautiful and picturesque.

After ducking into Patagonia and joining the queue of people also purchasing last minute cold-weather gear, we emerged to find a world transformed. A thin white blanket covered the dirt and grime that usually defines NYC. We walked along with our tongues out, trying to catch snow flakes on our tongues. We heard a few sniggers, and saw a few raised eyebrows from the long-term New Yorkers as we took photos and chattered excitedly about the snow - "Tourists". But no, we live here too, just never seen it snow before.

It snowed all day and soon the whole world was transformed. We ran over to the park when we got home with Noah and made snowballs with the few centimetres of snow on the ground, trying not to scrape up the dirt and grime just below the surface. Noah laughed at us - a lot. I am pretty sure he was thinking, "Crazy parents!" But we didn't care. We posted pictures on Facebook and sent them home to our family.

But we peaked too soon. This morning we awakened to a Winter Wonderland. Almost 11 inches of snow had fallen since yesterday. The world was transformed completely. I made Nathan and Noah dress as soon as we were up and raced over to the park. We made the first snow angels. We made the first snow man. Actually we made the first footprints in much of the park. Noah laughed and giggled. He cried a couple of times when we sat him in the snow. But he pointed and chattered away and seemed to think it was all very fantastical. We made snow balls and never even saw the grime which we knew was down there somewhere - just beautiful white powder.

An hour later and from the warmth of our apartment we saw the park filled with children and families. Each vying for a place to build a snow man or make a snow angel. Ours of course did not survive the onslaught. But they were there. First. That's what counts.