A Walk In Snow

The orange glow in the night sky should have looked eerie, but instead gave everything a frosting of warmth.  The heavy snow clouds reflected all the street lamps and house lights back down, effectively blocking the spreading beams. The 8-10 inches of snow smoothed over unequal ground as well as sounds from the nearby freeway with an equal blanket of white.  We stood at the foot of our driveway and watched as two snowmobiles made their gleeful ways through the unplowed snow on the main street.

The dogs tugged on their leashes, eager to start their adventure.  In all their 7 years they had never seen snow like this, and to be taken for a walk in it was much different than just running around in the back yard!  We gave in, as eager as the dogs to take a walk in this winter wonderland.

At this late hour the kids who had been chasing and snowball fighting and sledding in this white miracle had gone inside to their dinners and video games and television shows.  We had this world entirely to ourselves as the dogs tugged us forward.  Well, except for the guy on the atv that turned down a cross street.  As the sound of his engine was quickly muffled in the falling snow, silence reigned once again.

The dogs enjoyed themselves, bouncing and prancing through the snow.  We had no thoughts of curbing their enthusiasm with commands of "heel",  but instead, just let them be dogs.  They chugged through tire tracks equally, the three-legged one having no problem keeping up with her four-legged companion.  Their eagerness even helped haul us, their human leash-weights, through massive drifts.

We slogged on, the slight but freezing wind having proved an effective deterrent to going further than one block.  By the time we had completed our little circle, we were all covered with more than a dusting of snow.  As we stomped and slapped off our snowy shells on the doorstep, we were quite happy to be able to enjoy this rare time of Christmas snow.  Tomorrow would come the shoveling and digging out, but tonight we were young again.