Baby It's Cold Outside

It is freezing. Well, below freezing technically. When I came in from church activities a couple of hours ago it was -5 degrees. FAHRENHEIT. Man, how I loathe the cold. This is the time of year when I hibernate and only leave the house when absolutely necessary. I daydream of things like living on a school bus route and owning a car with an automatic starter. And I contemplate the great injustice of being the only Vaughan daughter that lives in a place with a winter. My inner dialogue goes something like this: "How is it that my two sisters live in places where a cold spell is 40 degrees? Here I am, freezing my bippy off, while they can just saunter over to the beach in the dead of winter and build a sandcastle." Yep, I'm pretty mature about the whole thing. I try to convince myself that I like winter by immersing myself in snowshoeing, ice skating and skiing but it's all just a farce. The reality is - I have always and will always hate winter.

Last night was our first snowfall of the season. Since Dave was working (and is in a boot anyway,) that left me to do the responsible thing and shovel the driveway and sidewalks before it became a packed down mess. I waited until Zach's nap and the warmest part of the day (a whopping 10 degrees) to venture outside with Emily, my eager assistant. My plan was to shovel the driveway and sidewalks as quickly as I could and be back inside in a half hour.

But my sweet Emily had other plans. At Joy School this week, they've been talking about service. So she asked if we could shovel the neighbor's driveways and sidewalks. Despite my detest for the cold, I didn't have an excuse worthy of turning down my 4 year old's desire to serve. So we shoveled, and shoveled and shoveled. We shoveled driveways and sidewalks for over two hours and knocked out a good chunk of our cul-de-sac. After each house I would say - are you ready to go inside? But no, she was determined to get them all done. I hope it made someone's day a little bit better today. It sure changed my mood. She is quite a girl, that Emily. I hope that I can be as unselfish as she is some day.