We had finished storytime, and the kids were all sitting at the table, colouring their duck pictures, when the librarian got all excited, pointed to the window, and yelled “It’s snowing!” The other mother and I jumped up and looked out, giddy with the expectation of snowflakes, while the kids just kept on with their crayons.

There is something irresistible about the first snowfall that turns even the most hardened adult into a kid (even if it’s just inside). I have always loved snow, and use to have a ritual where I would start this one book on the first snowfall, and read all but the last chapter, which I would save for Christmas Eve. That book and I lasted 17 years together before it fell apart. Winter Dreams, Christmas Love is one of my favourites, and I always looked forward to re-reading it. It had a special place in my bookcase, and over the years, as I got older, so did the book. It was held together with several layers of tape, had bits of pages missing from where the dog got it one year (that darn dog and I never got along), and it had that delicious aged book smell. For me, it was winter.

The first snowfall also brings thoughts of the holiday season.

I have trick-or-treated through snow; growing up in the midwest, you plan your costume to work with a parka. It was always a blast trying to decide what to be for Hallowe’en, you could not repeat the costume from the year before, so being frugal, I would usually see what I had at home to use. My craziest costume – I was a penny one year. My friends and I made these elaborate costumes out of foam; I was a penny, one friend was a red gumball, and the third was the gumball machine. We even dyed sweatpants and sweatshirts to match the colours of our costumes. Hallowe’en arrived…and it was about 35 and sleeting. So, we bundled up (under the foam we had more than enough room for multiple layers and our bulky parkas), threw garbage bags over the costumes, and off we went. Most people had zero clue what to think of us.

Thanksgiving is always a blast to plan; I make this delicious corn bread casserole, and will make my Gramma’s dinner rolls when I have the time to spend a whole day in the kitchen, plus there is just something about getting together with family whom you may not have seen in months, and working together to create the feast. Walking into Gramma’s house, smelling the turkey baking away in the oven, sneaking bits of the skin off once it was cooked, thinking no one was noticing, learning how to make the gravy (and accidentally dumping balsamic in one year, misunderstanding that it was to cure hiccups!), everyone gathering around the table with all of the leaves out, fighting over who got to sit on the wooden stepladder. Us kids would end up outside making a huge pile of leaves to jump in, or we would walk around the block over and over and over. If it was rainy or snowy, we would be relegated to the back bedroom, where we could watch some tv (Gramma had cable, and Nickelodeon had THE BEST shows on at the time) or read. The table would be so full of people and food, you could barely move without hitting someone, or something.

Christmas, oh there is nothing better than a white Christmas. We would write and send our letters to Santa by December 1st, always adding in that wish for snow. As Christmas got closer, we would spend hours in the kitchen baking cookies; our favourites were brownie balls and snowmen! Is there anything more exciting than Christmas Eve when you’re a kid (other than maybe your birthday)? We made sure there was one of each type of cookie on a plate, along with a mug and packet of hot cocoa and some carrots for the reindeer to share. We used to wake up so early Christmas morning, knowing we could not go downstairs until after 7. It was so stressful laying in bed, wondering if Santa came, and if he got what we had asked for in our letters. Racing down the stairs, seeing the tree with all of the presents underneath and the full stockings hanging on the mantel, and hoping not to be disappointed with what we got. If it snowed (we always hoped it would), we would bundle up after breakfast (and the Disney parade) and go out, making snowmen, running around, and sledding down the hill (if we were at Gramma’s).

Seeing the snow always brings out that excitement in me. When I was pregnant with Little Man, two of my friends from Florida flew up in early April for my baby shower. Of course, it snowed while they were in town. One of my girlfriends had never seen snow before, and she was so excited! She ran out, dancing in the snow, while my other girlfriend and I followed her out, giggling a little, and just enjoying ourselves. The snow did not really stick, but we ran around a bit, throwing bits of snow at each other. There is just something so magical, and comforting, about seeing those first few flakes fall to the ground, it awakens the child in us all.