SNOW

LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW, LET IT SNOW

I’M DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS

Well last night we had our third snow fall in 6 days so I am hoping for a white Christmas. I grew up in Wisconsin, There is suppose to be snow on the ground come December 25th.

I remember when I was a child that not having snow for Christmas would put us into somewhat of a panic. After all how was Santa going to land his sleigh without snow? Sleighs have runners they are supposed to be on snow. Incidentally I never gave much thought to the fact that a large portion of the world does not have snow. I remember Christmas without snow just a brown, barren cold landscape or one year an ice coated surrounding. There have even been Christmases where it wasn’t even all that cold. I’m sure these Christmases were disappointing to me. Nothing puts me in the Christmas spirit more than drifts and flurries and flocked trees.

I spent two Christmases in Africa as a Peace Corps volunteer and no those Christmases were not white, but they were very different in lots of other ways as well. My first Christmas away I spent in the capital and went to the beach. My second Christmas I spent in my village. I showed my neighbor kids how to cut snowflakes and we made paper chains from Newsweek international until we ran out of glue. I remember that I could not get any eggs in my village the week of Christmas and had to go all the way to the next village. My mom always made cinnamon rolls for both Christmas morning and Easter morning so I made a batch of those, they didn’t raise very well as you never knew how good the yeast would be. My neighbors thought they were terrific! Christmas Eve that year fell on a Sunday and I had gone to church that Sunday morning and really nothing about the church was different than any other Sunday. I was still the only white girl; people behind me still petted my hair, etc. That evening when I went to Christmas Eve Mass there was a breathtakingly beautiful Nativity set up in the front of the Church. Here in the US on Christmas Eve we light candles and dim the lights during silent night. That was not necessary as the church in my village had no electricity and the aisles were lit by kerosene lamps parishioners had brought with the. Silent Night in English or in French is beautiful and meaningful. The church in my village also did not have any glass in the windows so bats where swooping in and out during the service. Perhaps bats swooped in to look at the Christ Child too all those years ago in Bethlehem. Yes I was away from my family and all the commercialism of Christmas, there was no white Christmas, there was no tree, no lights and yet it remains one of my most memorable Christmases ever.

Her is hoping all your Christmas are white or at least memorable.