But we are totally loving it! Finally our snow has arrived. And more of it than we really know what to do with! It seems that all the hoping and wishing and praying I did almost a year ago has finally paid off.

I wonder what it is about snow that has some of us smitten. Is it just that everywhere takes on a magical feel as the blanket of white covers even the likes of the shambles that is our 'meant-to-be-redesigned-before-Christmas' driveway (see the house with no wall, 2 piles of bricks and some warning tape flapping in the breeze in the photo above!) ?

Could it be that there are photo opportunities abounding everywhere you look? Never before have I thought a rusty gate on our street looked so pretty. It's like it was just waiting for the final flourish of snow before the world realised it had been beautiful all this time but no one had ever really noticed!

Maybe it's the newness of all that surrounds us and the almost other-worldliness of the things we never usually take time to look at but which are suddenly impossible not to notice. The little river in the photo above is at the bottom of our road and it's only ever Conor who likes to look, but yesterday it could have been a scene from Lord of the Rings and we were all entranced by it.

Perhaps it's the light that changes how we feel. Everything is so bright, there's light bouncing off every available surface, and tiny bits of colour that manage to poke out of their snowy blanket seem so much more vivid than on a dull December day.

Maybe it's that we just get to act like big kids, throwing snowballs, building snowmen, slipping and sliding and laughing so much more than usual. That the rules have gone out the window because nothing is normal, and especially not our clothing! I refused to take a photo of myself in my snow attire yesterday, but will gladly share Patrick's crazy combination from Friday.

Whatever it is, it has our little family completely smitten. We're getting to wear proper winter clothes, our wellies and outdoor boots, race around like crazy people and break the no throwing rule (within reason), drink copious amounts of hot chocolate and generally make up for 25 years of practically no snow! There's another few inches being deposited as I type and school is closed for the boys tomorrow, so the fun will continue. Along with the photos, the wonderment and the joy!