Wednesday, January 25, 2017

SEVENTY WAYS TO PLAY WITH SNOW

Make snowballs of it

Have a snowball fight

Use it to dam melt water in the street gutter

Pile it

Sculpt it

Tunnel in it

Eat it

Catch flakes of it on your tongue

Make blocks of it and build an igloo

Stomp huge  “crop circles” in it

Write in it

Study a single flake of it

Make a flavored snow cone

Build a fort of it

Follow animal tracks in it

Breath on it and watch it melt

Make a ball and some pins of it and then bowl

Bury each other in it (with supervision)

Ski on it

Sled on it

Sculpt a jump of it

Build it into a snow slide or luge run

Roll in it

Use sticks, stones and leaves with it to make fairy houses

Shovel a maze in it

Make snow angels on it

Photograph it

Count its subtle colors

Listen to the different sounds it makes when you step on it at different temperatures

Find a big stick and play snow baseball

Get a spray bottle and some food coloring, and color it

On days too cold to play outdoors, bring a bin of it indoors

Bury colorful objects and/or candy in it and have a treasure hunt

Make candled luminaries of it

Play tic-tac-SNOW on it

Play step-in-my-tracks follow-the-leader across it

Play low-impact tackle football (on soft snow only)

Create a slippery slope (a big cardboard box will do) and simulate an avalanche of it

Have a three-legged race in it

Stage a snowball-rolling
competition with it

Have a tug-of-war on it

Have a snowball pyramid-building contest

Use earth-moving toys (dump truck, backhoe, steam shovel, etc.) in it

Make circles of it on a tree or rock and have snowball target practice

Build an obstacle course on it (for kids and/or dogs)

Stage a winter-olympics-style series of running, lifting, throwing games with it

Play mini-golf in it

Build a creative snow man of it

Build a fire on top of a tamped-down pile of it and watch it turn into a huge luminary

Set up shop for a snow hamburger and snow hot dog stand

Have a picnic in it

If you have access to a sauna, cook yourself till you can’t stand it anymore and then run out and roll in it

Make silly hats out of it

Before the next snowfall, make a big stencil of a graphic or message, and let the new snow be your medium

Juggle it

Create shadow art using it as a “screen”

Help shovel it off of someone’s sidewalks or car who can’t do it themselves

Have an “Oh, that’s cold!” contest: everyone buries one bare foot in the snow, and the last one to pull out gets a prize

Make a fancily decorated “birthday cake” of it (and maybe hide a real birthday cake inside)

Decorate a tree trunk with it

Kayak on it

Make a statement in it





5 comments:

four friends and their friends said...

Get in your SUV
Drive far far away from it

four friends and their friends said...

Lie in your warm bed in Florida
Reminiscing, missing it, longing to be in it

Jeffrey Willius said...

Jennifer, have you caught cabin fever from a Minnesotan? First you shun it; then you long to be in it. Yup, cabin fever fer sher!

Robin Easton said...

Dear Jeffrey, you are pure delight!! I love this so much. Having grown up in Maine with 5 siblings and 3 - 4 foot snow storms back then, we 6 kids did every single one of these, except the luminaries, miniature gold, hot dog stand, and birthday cake. I read this whole list and can't remember if you added 'make snow angels.' Also, we used to jump out of second story windows into HUGE drifts of snow that were more than half-way up the the house. We all did this with Dad, as there were several times we could not get any of the doors or windows open on the first floor. We LOVED that.

I can really tell how WELL you know your snow. Only people that have lived in real snow country would know all of these things. This was such a rib-tickling read for me. It brought up so many found memories. As kids we would often spend all day out in the snow. We thrilled over the 'school-canceled-due-to-the-storm' days. We loved those snowy winter days as much as the summer days. I think we were impervious to the cold.

Thank you for such a delightful share, my dear friend. I also bookmarked your canoe post. I have read half of it between work and can hardly wait to read the rest. I am LOVING it!!! It is a magical, almost mythical story. I deeply feel your profound bond with that beautiful little Osprey. I too would have salvaged it and kept it forever. I adore your...yes...MYTHICAL...bond with that little canoe. It was much more than 'just' a canoe to you. It was a part of who you are, who you are at your very core. I feel so privileged to See and know that part of you. I deeply feel it and understand it sooo well. Thank you, SO much. Robin

PS: I am suddenly and finally receiving all of your blog posts. I do not know what changed, as I was not getting them, even though I tried to sign up for them. It's a delightful miracle!! Lol :)

Jeffrey Willius said...

Hey Robin - Thanks for your always generous encouragement! No surprise that you, in addition to your soulful embrace of canoeing, are also such a snow-lover. You must dearly miss it down there -- except, I suppose, when you venture up to higher elevations, right? It's a nice, snowing winter here in Minnesota. In addition to few major winter storms, we've been getting a couple inches of new snow every few days. I think we've had about five feet of it so far, and what's usually the snowiest part of winter is yet to come. Wish I could at least send you a box of snowballs! (-;

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