Let it snow
January 29, 2004
Mom and me, Big Bear Mountain, ca. 1980
I know I don’t know what cold really is. I’ve lived in Southern California most of my life, and I can probably count the times I’ve seen the snow on my fingertips. I don’t know how it feels to bundle up head to toe. I have never had to worry about my car getting buried alive. I don’t know what below zero even means.
Still, I daydream of marching home down icy paths, making snow angels and tossing snowballs at friends, and waking up in the morning to find the whole world covered in a blanket of blinding white.
I'm Christine, and this is a slice of my life—a sweet, rich, wildly indulgent slice that would taste really good with a scoop of Breyers vanilla bean ice cream. Read more >>
I run a darling, friendly, little graphic design studio.
I look on the bright side.
I take photos. Lots of photos.
I wish on stars and on websites.
I built my first web site 7 years ago and got 15 seconds of fame. (It changed my life.)
I launched, then relaunched, an online magazine.
I admitted to several embarrassing crushes.
I consumed more bacon than any human should and lived to tell the tales.
What a charming mother-daughter picture!
i wish for the cold to go away. you can come and steal it if you want. here in iowa, it’s below zero every day, with highs often reaching heights of three! it’s thrilling walking to class, feeling like my face will freeze off.
the scenery is beautiful, though. :) there’s the tree outside my window, with snow on its limbs, and the glittery flurries blustering past streetlamps. it’d be great if i just never had to leave my bed.
Considering I moved from an area where the teens were cold to a land where I’m discovering a “feels like -21 degrees F” on my desktop weather tonight, I’m not sure I’d ask for TOO much cold.
Although waking up in the world to find the world covered in white is a wonderful thing. I reccommend doing this in an area of the world where this will cause your local metropolis to grind to a halt and give you a blissfully free day for maximum effect. Trudging home from playing outdoor games to hot chocolate is best done during normal working hours.
Aww! You were so incredibly cute!! Not surprising at all, of course, but it’s just that you were really incredibly cute! And so tiny! You mom looks so stylish too.
I can definitely identify with the not-having-experienced-true-coldness thing. I love snow because it looks pretty, but that’s just in pictures; I’ve never even seen real snow. Below zero sounds like a death sentence to me.
you’d love my (small and european) town right now. we have inches and inches and INCHES of thick deep white sparkling snow, the temperature has dipped below zero and the sky is a sweet cold steely pretty wonderful cerulean baby-blue…
Come to New York City. It is completely cold and snowy right now. Nice pic!
aw. that photo is so super great. pretty pretty ladies.
xo.
I love that photo! You are so beautiful, you reming me of my little daughter. I also understand, I was born and raised in Puerto Rico were the Caribbean weather rules! I remember when I was little wondering if snow was little a icecone (shaved ice) and if I could pour flavored syrup on top….
don’t know what below zero means? this morning when I woke up here in Duluth, MN, the wind chill was -54
my best cold and snow memories are getting up while it is still dark in the early morning, listening to the school cancellations on the radio with my mom, and doing elated dances if we heard my school closing!!!
i grew up in south florida. i only saw snow 2wice before i left home.
when i got to college though, school was closed for one day because of snow. i ran home from my cancelled class. I rolled around in the snow, made a tiny snow man (it hadn’t snowed much), and tried to instigate a snowball fight.
my schoolmates laughed out loud at me. “there’s not enough snow for a snowball fight.” it had only snowed an inch and i was soaked with mud more than anything else.
that night though, it snowed again. i browsed the campus directory, called every student from florida, and invited them to my midnight snowball fight. fifty people showed up!
and there’s something extra special about a snowball fight at midnight.
It really is nice. But I’m more than happy when spring comes around.
I love that picture. How cute!
miss winter-girl is my favorite drawing of yours yet! your own personal (wonderful) mark becomes more and more evident in your art.
http://rondicasmith.com/Snow/index.htm
I invite you to look at some snowy Chicago photos. I love the snow, but this year it is really getting to me. It is horrendously cold and everything is covered with a layer of ice.
The sun has been shining most days, which is a good thing, if you don
go to northern china sometime in december. it’s beautiful – and terribly cold.
I’m with Rachel–yesterday when I went to get groceries it was -20 degrees here in Cottage Grove, MN. And that’s without the wind chill! When I was small, my brother and I would wade out in the snow, barely able to move for all the clothing we were wearing. We would spend as much time as we could handle making snowman families until we finally had to go indoors, cheeks stinging from the cold. Ah, back in the days when MN had REAL winters!
What an adorable photo of you and your mum. You were such a cutie back then! (And you are still today.)
You inherited your mother’s beauty, for sure. What a wonderful photograph, a nice addition to a wonderful blog. I love your work, both written and illustrated. (Written as I sit beside a window showing inches of snow on our deck!).