Snow

One of the few places Ben and I have a real difference of opinion is when it comes to snow.

I'm not fond of the cold, but I really like snow.  Maybe this is a function of never really having to be out in it if I didn't want to be.  Not that I haven't done plenty of grocery shopping on snowy days when I would prefer to actually be at home making cookies, but in general I'm flexible enough to work around snow.

Ben, on the other hand, spent way too many years having to get up in the dark and deal with cold wet snow without being properly awake and ready to go.  As a result, he has a rare instance of agreeing with the majority of the rest of the world and using a cliche phrase to describe snow: "It looks good out the window," he said reluctantly as we looked at the first real snow coming down yesterday.

Now, I look forward to snow storms.  And there are few things sadder than a perfectly good snowstorm being wasted on someone who says, "Yuck" when they hear it's going to snow six or seven inches.

So perhaps this winter I can help Ben enjoy snow.  Because the fact is the snow is going to arrive.  We live in Michigan and it's December and it's going to be January and February and snow is just a fact of life around here.  And if it's going to be here, we might as well take pleasure in it.  I'm not exactly sure yet what I'm going to do to reattach good memories to snowstorms so Ben responds happily to them, but there has to be something.  After all, I was made to be a helper.  If being a helper means helping someone take joy in something previously dreaded...well hey, what else is a good helper for?

Maybe we can start with hot chocolate made from Lactaid milk.  We discovered this week that Ben really can drink a whole glass of Lactaid milk without his stomach making alarming noises like it does with regular milk (seriously, it sounds like he has a submarine in there trying to surface).  He was so pleased by this that he drank a whole glass of it before bed last night just because he could.  Anyone deprived of hot chocolate for a few years might start to acquire a gloomy outlook on snow.  I'm just saying.

Of course, maybe I don't really have to do anything unusual at all.  Maybe just doing things like shoveling the driveway and scraping the car together instead of by himself will cheer Ben up when it comes to snow.  It'd sure be a shame to have to enjoy the upcoming snowstorms all by myself.  Maybe I'll enlist enthusiastic siblings to help.  We've all grown up taking tremendous joy in snow together, so maybe that joy can rub off.  Joy has a way of doing that.

But an important thing to remember is...if Ben still doesn't enjoy snow by the end of the winter, he's not going to be any less wonderful of a man and I'm not going to be personally affronted.

I'll simply have to call Michael up every year so I can shout, "I JUST SAW THE FIRST SNOWFLAKE!!!!"