If you are from this part of Virginia, you know that we rarely ever get snow in December, let alone before Christmas. Well, we did get some snow one night last week. It fell mostly in the early morning hours. It was quite beautiful to wake up to a white lawn and snow clinging to the branches of the trees and shrubs. If you can’t tell, yes, I like snow. I love the magical feeling of everything turning white for a while. Needless to say, around here it never really lasts very long like the snow last week.
One of my fondest memories at Christmastime also involves snow. When I was a junior in high school, oh so many years ago, we got snow on Christmas Eve. Again, it was a snow that fell mostly at night. I had gone to church with my parents for the late candlelight service. When we entered the church there was nary a snow flake in the air. We sat down for the service, listened to the pastor’s sermon and sang a few Christmas carols. When it was over, we made our way to the front door only to find at least an inch of snow on the ground with heavy snow continuing to fall. We lived right across the street from the church so thankfully we didn’t have far to go. The amusing thing about all of this is the expression on my father’s face when he saw all of the show. You see, Dad worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation driving a truck. In the winter time, when we got snow, he would drive a snow plow for hours to help clear the roads. He loved to drive the plow and I think he especially enjoyed it at night. Whenever he saw the first snowflakes flying with an oncoming storm, he would dash to the phone and call his supervisor to say, “You want me to come in?”
Back to my story about that Christmas Eve. Dad called in to let them know that he was on the way, then he dashed upstairs to change his clothes while my mother made coffee for his thermos and packed him some things to nibble on to help him stay awake. After he left, we all went to bed. Dad got home in the morning around 9am. Even though Dad had been up all night, he still wanted us to do our normal Christmas that morning so we all sat down and opened all of our gifts. When we were done, dad went upstairs to sleep for a few hours before we had our afternoon Christmas dinner.
My father has been gone for many years now, but whenever I think about that night, it still makes me smile. I hope that everyone has a great holiday story that makes them smile when they think back on it whether snow is involved or not. Happy Holidays to all!
