A large hand gently rocked my shoulder, prompting me into a confused semi-conscious state. My husband was curled up behind my back, his head resting on mine. “Guess what honey?” He asked, excitement underlining his whisper. “It’s a snow day!”

I blinked my eyes, trying to sort out reality. Taylor appeared to be home for some reason. He also sounded giddy. But I distinctly remembered him leaving for work and he’s never giddy about that!

Taylor sensed my confusion. “I don’t have to go to work today! It snowed too much last night!”

My eyes widened as the endorphins ricocheted off my brain’s wall. A snow day! In Utah?! Husband home all day with me and the kids?! HAIL SANTA AND CALL ME BEYONCE IT’S A SNOW DAY!

Taylor disappeared into the house to wake the kiddos. He was going to make them waffles for breakfast. I curled back into the nest of blankets to relax my eyes for just a minute…

After a solid 3 hour nap, I sauntered downstairs to find everyone dressing for the wild outdoors. Indeed, more than half a foot of snow had dumped on us overnight. Though it’s been 5 years since my real last Utah winter, I don’t recall this being any different than any other Utahn snowstorm? But I’m not one to bite the hand that feeds me (did I use that phrase correctly?) and so a snow day we had!

Taylor’s school required the teachers to offer his students an assignment and 1 hour of instruction availability on zoom to keep them busy during the snow day. Taylor got everything prepared and published online. He was eager, however, to get out and recruit our children into unburying the neighbors’ cars from the snowfall. I offered to take over the zoom watch while he went out with the kiddos.

I thought it was a little overboard to require teachers to give an assignment on an impromptu holiday like today, and apparently so did most of his students! I kneaded dough in waiting for the few students to log on and chat with me about their math assignment. (It was a lot of fun to work with those kids again. I SO miss being in the classroom.)

With the zoom hour over, Sander and I went for a little walk, discovering Narnia along the way:

We took the kids out to lunch:

This was a celebration of Snow Day & a preemptive celebration of Mommy finishing her semester later this week 🙂

The day rounded out with the kids building a snow fort with their friends. I worked on some planning for the new year while Taylor played a computer game.

Taylor often comments on the peacefulness of a snow day. Everything is so quiet. Hushed. Newly laden snow blankets the world around us. Sometimes it makes funny molds of everyday objects, like this tomato planter:

Or the car tire:

Such a lovely day to celebrate the snow.