We recently got hammered with snow, like a lot of the country. Usually in NC in February it starts getting warm, and I can barely keep myself from starting gardening projects, but it's been a cold year. I'm going to really miss the weather here if/when Kimball's fellowship ends, and he gets a job somewhere else. I'm not a big fan of snow. I like it for about one week, and then I'm done. My kids seem to be made out of the same metal as me. We trekked over to the cousins' house and went sledding down a hill in their backyard. The kids lasted for about 20 minutes before the whining began. At 30 minutes the baby was screaming her head off because snow had gotten in her mittens and she was cold. We went back inside.
During this cold streak of weather, instead of starting a fire (in four years we have not turned on our gas fireplace), we went and got gelato. Besides the anxiety that comes with having children with nut allergies during these kind of excursions, we had a blast. We try not to bring nutty treats into the house, but when we go out, Kimball and I get to carefully indulge in pecan, pistachio, and hazelnut-flavored things. The place we went to was the kind of sleek ultramodern eatery not really made for kids. You feel bad if a drop gets on the floor, and drops did. The kids didn't care that we were running around with wipes and napkins. They also didn't care that the gelato was icey, had too much air whipped into it, and wasn't "tight." This is the kind of thing that Mom doesn't like. I'm a normal person and only like to pay premium prices for premium products. Anyway, the kids had so much fun that they've been talking about it ever since, wanting to know if we can go back to "that ice cream store." And since the total for single scoops for our family came to $25, the answer to that question is "no." It will be extra special if they only have one memory of it. :)
