Trailer Wife

It started yesterday morning around 5:30 AM as I was walking to the gym. When I walked home an hour later, there was an inch or so on the ground. It has been snowing ever since, and I think we have about six inches of accumulation. And so, the whole world has undergone a remarkable makeover. What was once muddy and gray now glitters. Everything is still. The soft, bouncy light that accompanies snow fills the windows with cornflower blue. It's hard to be sad when there is fresh powder under your feet.

As a kid growing up in Oregon, serious snow showers were rare, and never happened on Christmas Eve. I remember Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbes) saying once that "Getting an inch of snow is like getting ten cents in the lottery," and I completely agree. When it comes to the weather, I am all about extremes. This is what makes me hopeful about living in Fairbanks. Though I know that this perfect, powdery snow will become crusted, besmirched, and detestable all in good time, the fact that it is finally here, and that winter has demonstrably begun, feels very satisfying. In Alaska, it will always be a white Christmas.

Tonight after dinner, Sam and I took Gus out for some impromptu, improvised sledding. Since we don't actually have a sled yet, Sam plopped the kid down on the rake and made do. Gus loved it. They must have done ten or fifteen runs along Copper Lane, and Gus only fell off twice. It sounds a little sentimental to write down, but watching Sam run madly around with the baby cackling behind him felt like a snapshot moment. You know - when everything from the light in the sky to the smell in the air to the wicked glint in your kid's eyes align to create this palpable, heart-swallowing moment. The kind that you'll be able to instantly recall for the rest of your life. It was a good day.