I remembered why I don’t usually come back to Kansas during the winter holiday. I was hoping for some snow after I got done with all of my traveling, but I didn’t realize we would get so much snow! By the time the blizzard was over, we had over 11 inches (over 28 centimeters)!
The snowstorm this past weekend was one of the big topics of conversation for several days before it hit. On Friday, my mom and I were out, and she wanted to stop by Costco. It was cold outside, but there wasn’t any sign of snow. In fact, the sunset was beautiful.
After driving around the Costco parking lot for 5 or 10 minutes, we finally found a parking spot. I’m used to American supermarkets that are huge and fairly empty. On this day, the aisles were crowded with people and the rotisserie chickens were sold out.
“It’s okay,” Mom said, “I have chicken at home, and I also wanted to get some fish sticks.”
We found the fish sticks more than halfway to the back of the huge store. As she put the fish sticks in our cart, I pointed toward a line of people next to us. “Are you sure we need these fish sticks, Mom? We’re going to be in this line for forever.” So we gave up and left.
On Saturday, we started getting some snow flurries, but no snow was sticking to the ground yet. We ran some errands and then headed home to see what would happen.
Around 4 pm, Dad went out, but he didn’t even make it to his destination before turning around and coming home. The roads were slick with ice and going uphill was nearly impossible. We found out later that there were over 100 crashes in Kansas City from the freezing rain. So we settled in to wait out the weather.
The question is, what are three adults in a small apartment supposed to do all day when you can’t go outside? I haven’t spent this much time with my parents in such close proximity for several years. Last time I came home, a year and a half ago, my parents were working regularly. But now we were stuck. Fortunately, my parents like many of the same group activities that I do. Unfortunately, we don’t always agree on the specifics of those activities.
What to do during a snowstorm:
1. Puzzles. My parents and I all like puzzles, and this works well overall because we like most of the same kinds of puzzles. When we do the puzzle, my dad and I tend to focus on the details, so we choose a section or a color and work on that for a while. My mom likes to see the big picture, so she usually does the edge pieces and then urges us to add our sections into the middle. We had just finished a shaped puzzle of a deer, so during the snowstorm, we started a 3,000-piece puzzle with dozens of Peanuts cartoon characters. I’m hoping we can finish it before I leave!
2. Games. This activity is a bit harder since we all enjoy different types of games. Putting a puzzle together can tend to be repetitive, so I was ready for a game that was more strategic. We compromised by playing Mille-bornes then Boggle (Dad soundly defeated us with words like “oxide” and “rad”). We also got in a couple rounds of Dutch Blitz—in my family, playing Dutch Blitz would probably be considered a sport by Olympic standards. After dinner, we even convinced Mom to play Life. We all ended up rich and retired happily with several kids.
3. Movies. This one seems fairly obvious, but the trick is to find a movie that we all agree on. Dad and I like most movies, and Mom doesn’t like most movies. Dad and I like action movies, but these movies are basically candy—I enjoy them while I watch them, but they don’t have a lot of lasting substance or nourishment. Mom doesn’t like action movies. We watched The Forge, a Kendrick Brothers movie about a teenage guy who has no purpose or direction or respect and how he changes and grows. Every time I watch a Kendrick Brothers movie, I feel inspired to write and create. We also watched The Boys in the Boat, and that one was also nice and motivating to do hard things and fight against the odds. While we were snowed in, we also watched Dennis the Menace. While slightly heartwarming, I didn’t feel very inspired after watching this one.
4. Look at the Snow. This is pretty self-explanatory, and I think you can figure it out.
5. Shovel the snow. Shoveling the cars out probably wouldn’t have taken too long, except that Dad and I kept getting distracted by our neighbors who asked us to help with our shovel. I was thrilled to be able to talk to people and be outside and do some exercise.
6. Read. This isn’t a family activity, but I’m reading about half a dozen different books at the moment, so I worked on several of those.
To be honest, my parents and I do most of these activities all the time, whether there is snow or not. I have also carried these activities with me into my life in China. Except I haven’t found a lot of friends who really enjoy puzzles, so I usually do them by myself while listening to audio books.
Do you have any other snow-day activities that kept you occupied? Let me know what they are in the comments section! The snow really has been delightful (I’m not sure if I’ll be saying that in a week when it has turned brown, but enjoy the blessings while they last, right?), and I’m thankful for some extra time with my parents. And even though I didn’t get as much time alone as I might have liked, I would rather be with them than stuck at home alone during the snowstorm!