Snow Day!

Hooray!  The Californians are SO excited!  It actually SNOWED! 

While we have been to the snow to visit many times, it was super exciting for the kids to have snow right in their own backyard!  In preparation for the big event, we invited our extended Expat family - the Walkers and the Goulds (minus John and Geoff who were travelling) - over for a good old fashioned sleepover!  We had popcorn and M & Ms, watched so-bad-it's-good TV, and ate takeout Chinese.  When it started to snow, you would have thought my kids and the Walker kids had won the lottery.  The Gould kids (Alex in 3rd grade and Eva in 4th) were likewise excited, but having come from Connecticut, home of the 10 foot snowbank,  thought perhaps we had just all eaten one too many Junior Mints and lost our minds.  The kids ran inside the house screaming for 10 minutes, then outside the house screaming for an hour.  It snowed all night long, and when the kids woke up they made the most of it!

Here's the crew!

Toby, being a true California dog, does not care to be wet or cold.  He is the only lab in existence who is terrified of water and gives the swimming pool a wide berth.  But even he couldn't resist joining in the festivities.  Although he absolutely refused to let go of his favorite "baby" - the SantaPig. 

There was enough snow to give sledding a whirl:

And even build a snowman - albeit a rather grassy, dirty one. 

Lots of running and snowball fighting. 

The Fourth Grade Crew:

Third Grade Pals:

Later in the day we took a family walk in our neighborhood to enjoy the beauty of the snow covered landscape. 

The interesting thing about London is that it really is not prepared to handle any real snow fall.  The threat of snow incites a bit of panic, and actual snowfall completely shuts the city down.  It's kind of like California and STORMWATCH.  Elbows are thrown at the grocery store to stock up on supplies (my favorite was the woman behind me who had a cart with only 3 bags of frozen chicken parts and 3 bottles of vegetable oil.  Yep, that should do it for a few days), roads grow quiet and people generally hunker down at home.  There's still snow on the ground, and it looks like we might get more next week - but we'll be off on our ski adventure in Switzerland!

We thoroughly made the most of our first London snowfall, and everyone (including Toby) is looking forward to the next one!  Love to all!