I wrote about this recently on my facebook page. The Blizzard Basket is something we do every year and I can’t tell you how much the kids look forward to it. Often it falls on a “snow day” when school has been canceled making it just that much more of a celebration.
****
It’s almost time to put out the blizzard basket (although as my daughter Addy reminds me I’m a bit too late this year, what with our recent Halloween blizzard). Basically, it’s a basket covered with holiday tea towels that is opened up on the first day of a snow storm large enough to keep us home.
We’ve done this since Spencer (our oldest) was little. The key is that it sits in a corner (usually under the Christmas tree), covered, and no one knows exactly when it will be opened (or what will be inside.) The anticipation is delicious.
Inside? Games, popcorn, candy canes, hot cocoa, baking mixes, holiday music, and crafts – enough fixings for a cozy day indoors while the winds howl outside. This year (shhh) I’m also going to be putting in a tool that helps you blow out eggs, along with ribbons and paints, I thought we’d make a few egg-ornaments to give to our friends this holiday season.
Oh, and because if I’m anything, I’m a big softy, there will also be nibbles in the basket for the dog, rabbit, and chickens (I’m going with suet cakes for the hens.) The first snow is when the world changes from barren grey to a fairy-tale sparkling diamond-white. It’s something that never fails to take our breath away, reminding us that beauty is always just out our door. There will be time enough later in the season to damn the persistent heavy snowstorms that require shoveling (again) but for the first snowfall? We dance and celebrate, a tiny bit of magic in our lives.
