Send-Off Snow

So, here I sit, in the Sea-Tac airport.  Sadly, my Christmas break trip has come to an end.  I am heading back to Fresno for school.  Although I am rather excited to see my friends, for date night with my boyfriend, to get back to work (for the sake of a paycheck of course), and other such joys of Fresno, I hate leaving.  As I said last week, I stink at goodbyes. 

Before I get to the see-you-later part (since I am still no longer saying goodbye) the greatest thing happened last night.  Mom and Dad always have this way of making the last night at home extra special.  Last night we went out to dinner at the KEG! Northwest people, you know this greatness…Fresno people, you are missing out.  The Keg is a steakhouse with the best caesar salad and mashed potatoes you can imagine.  Oh, their steak is great too, but that’s not my favorite part.  This is where Dad wanted to eat. (Good Idea Dad!)

We open the front door to leave and you will never believe what was happening; it was snowing!!  I have been saying for the past 24 days that I wanted it to snow.  My last night in town, it happens.  Apparently, it was ordered just for me.  There is just something so perfect about my home-sweet-home being covered in pure white snow.  First, I have to say, thanks for the special-order snow; it is greatly appreciated.  Mom called this my send-off snow which I think was the perfect term to use.  It is sending be back to Cali knowing that I won’t see true cold weather for quite some time, and also reassuring the fact that I don’t want to ever live somewhere where it doesn’t snow at least a little bit.  It is just too wonderful to not enjoy at least once a year.  Second, it snowed the entire time we were eating and the snow was sticking to the ground.  Ok, I have to pause here to explain something about snow in the Northwest.  There are two kinds of snow here, there is the snow that falls and lands on wet ground, therefore melting and on an extra cold night, freezing.  Then there is a second kind of snow that falls and coats the ground with its wonderfulness (this did not come up with a squiggly red line in Microsoft Word so it must be a word), which is termed “sticking” snow.  I realize that this is not an original term or anything, I’m just clarifying.  So, this was the sticking kind of snow.  On the drive home all I could think about was how priceless the house was going to look since we haven’t taken our Christmas lights down yet.  (According to Mom they aren't coming down until March 1st). I had this sudden urge to sing Christmas songs even though I know we are in January now. 

Now, back to dinner.  The waitress asked if we were celebrating anything.  This is sort of a weird question for us to answer and we laughed.  My Dad replied we are celebrating our daughters returning to school tomorrow.  Which sounds to me like they are ready for us to leave...but I know they actually hate it when we leave as much as they do.  We concluded that we were celebrating a great break and a new semester beginning. 

This is what has been termed a ‘two-snort dinner.’  We were laughing so incredibly hard that Mom was crying, and I mean mascara coating the napkin, crying, while Lisa and I were snorting.  With great difficulty Dad was trying to remain calm, but he failed.  The two poor people sitting near us were, clearly annoyed with our hysterical spouts of laughter.  Although, when we got to the car the conclusion was that the girl was more interested in what was happening at our table than at hers with her date.  Sorry dude, we didn’t mean to make you look bad and ruin your date.

Finally, we had our fill, of food and laughter; it was time to go home; it snowed all the way home might I add.  The house, as I knew it would be was beautiful.  Next best decision we made all day happened next: time to go sit in the hot tub.  I know, I know.  You are going to tell me we are crazy, and I agree, but it was just right.  We enjoyed the new canopy that has been added to the deck so we watched it snow, without getting snow on us, while relaxing in bubbly hot water.  The only bad part was walking in the snow to uncover and recover the hot tub; but it was well worth it. 

With the early flight this morning it was time to head to bed.  4:00am came way to early this morning when my alarm clock rang.  So my send-off snow made getting the suitcases into the truck much more difficult since it was parked at the top of the driveway to insure we were able to leave the house and has also delayed our flight, so far by 2 hours.  Oh well, I will do my best to enjoy every moment of being in Seattle even if I am just sitting in the airport. 

So eventually, whenever our flight leaves, “See you later Seattle!” 

*If it hadn't been for the camera in my hands I would have been done-for!

Oh shoot…now delayed 3 hours.  No complaints here, I am watching the snow/rain (I lied, there are three kinds of snow; the third being snow that cannot seem to decide if it is snow or rain) fall and the planes come in and out, pondering which one will be the one to take me from one home to the next.