please send christmas cards to narnia

it's what we'd been waiting for.

friday afternoon, while i was sitting in bible study at my friend julie's house, the flakes began to fall.  they fell and they fell and they fell.  in fact, the snow continued to fall until  sometime early monday morning -- well over a foot of snow, maybe close to two feet. at some point, we stopped counting inches.

and all of a sudden we walked through the coat closet to the other side.   like we went to sleep in minnesota and woke up in narnia.   our home, our yard, the lake, the streets...everything completely covered in deep white. transformed.  magnificently transformed.

always a sucker for fairytale settings, i was struck with the intense beauty. breathtaking.

my kids and husband, struck with only the intense fun, were dressed and out on the hill above the lake in a flash.  hour after hour.  sledding and sliding and sloshing through it all, like it might disappear in a day.  this is minnesota, kids, with temperatures in the teens, the snow doesn't melt.  at least not this month.  maybe not for months....

i won't stop too long on that thought, but will instead drink in the gift God has given: a world of white.  a clean transforming.  what we want.  desire.  crave.  sled rides are fun, but a reminder of God's complete covering...

and like in any beautiful transformation, pictures are worth much more than my words.

cooper loves every flake of it!

seems like something out of storybook, doesn't it?  that's how we've felt all week.  how brilliant is God thinking up something THIS magnificent.  i mean really.  just look at that sky....

what wasn't very story-bookish though, was waking my children on monday morning and explaining to them that school was not cancelled.  they argued with me.  they couldn't quite believe we had all of THAT in our front yard and yet it was business as usual in rugged minnesota.  they stomped around the house outraged at the injustice, not to mention insanity, of it all.  their indignation quickly turning into bewilderment.  "i can't believe this" they continued to say over breakfast and boots and backpacks.  "i really can't believe they expect us to go to school." 

i posted the following picture on facebook for those of you who had encountered my children this week.  if you didn't understand their dazed and confused look...this picture might help shed some light.   it at least made me laugh.  from the south to the north, God is stretching.  mcnatt kids...you aren't in kansas anymore...