I am just waiting for the snow to fall.  It's October, and there is not a sign of it.  I am probably dreaming anyway, since I live south of Houston, in Texas.  It hardly snows here ever. 

I dream of waking up in the morning and putting on my heavy coat and my mittens, and jumping into a horsedrawn carriage with the love of my life, and riding into the woods to enjoy the blanket of white that has covered the entire horizon in our sleep.

When we get to the woods it will be the best time of my life.  I can remember being a child in Illinois and riding a toboggon down the hill, speeding faster and faster, in the lead seat to steer the contraption.  The cold wind whipping around my head, protected by so many hats and scarves that I am hardly recognized except for my distinctive laugh.

Now that I am older my tobogganing days are over but I dream still of the moment in time when I can sit in a carriage, legs covered by a blanket, with my husband's arms around me to keep us both warm.  We enjoy the crunch of the tires on the snow and the clopping of the horses' hoofs as they dutifully trudge across the frozen terrain.  Nothing to care about except the day, nothing to worry about except for staying warm, which is easy when you are with the one you love.

I digress again, to the midwest, riding on my daddy's shoulders and still being barely as tall as the snow drift that has covered a whole side of our farmhouse.  The white virgin snow against the red paint on the structure was beautiful.  It was like Christmas!  I did not feel the cold then, either.  I'm sure it was the excitement of the first full snowfall of the season, or the fact that I was with my daddy, I had him all to myself.

With the pleasant memories that encompass my childhood concerning the snowfall, it's no wonder that I long for the simple days of my youth and childhood when there was nothing in the world to keep me from accomplishing anything.  I could have jumped to the moon when I was seven years old.  Fourty years later I find that reality is not fun. 

Reality will be fun the day that snow really falls, inches of snow, in Houston, Texas.  Schools, businesses, and roads will be closed because no one would be prepared for it.  I will laugh myself silly enjoying the reminders of the best times of my life.  I will lay down in the snow with my grandchildren and make snow angels, and snowmen, and forts to play in.  Then after we are exhausted, we will have the best homemade hot cocoa in the world!  But this game will have to wait, I'm spending time with my

husband, waiting for the day to end?  Never!  I want this day to remain forever.

I wonder when it will snow?