A Day in the Life of a Snow Bunny

Out here at the Farm, the snow day was filled with absolute creativity and spontaneity. Ethan's ability to handle cold and wet amazed me and he never once complained about the snow and played in it for hours. Being the first snow he's been able to remember, his surprise at seeing it and his anticipation for playing in it was much more evident than any Christmas present he received this year, something confirmed as well by Minnemie and her boys. It's evidence to go towards the idea that a fun trip to the north would suit better than many Christmas toys quickly forgotten.

Amazingly, none of my family had to work and school was cancelled, so my parents, Ethan, and I built a snowman completely decked out with washers for eyes, a carrot nose, and ultimately a hard hat. My father's perfectionistic side quickly surfaced as he made sure everything was smooth and there were no leaves or dirt in the snow. Ethan also made snow angels and after "Daddy," Jeff, arrived, we all went sledding.

Our sled-mobile initially started out with a $5 special from Roses, the pink plastic mess of a sled. But with my father and Jeff's creativity, we made sides for the sled, pulled Ethan around the yard as he yelled "mush" to his "sled dogs" and finally, hooked the sled up to the 4-wheeler and my father pulled Jeff, Ethan, and me around the yard, pulling doughnuts in the field and eventually knocking both Jeff and I from the sled - a winter wonderland wipeout. Ethan, however, enjoyed a leisurely ride and looked as if he was about to take a nap instead of panic for fear of tumbling out.

The day was complete with lentil-vegetable soup and toasted homemade bread. Then a nap. Needless to say, it was an amazing day of deep snow (for SC), a jaunt through the beautiful woods, and many layers of clothes.

The Hamster Fiasco

As I'm typing this, a hamster sits beside the computer in a Blowfish shoe box. It's really quite an amazing story about how it got there. A few days before Christmas, one of my professors suggested I get Ethan, my 4-year-old, a hamster or pet for Christmas. I went to Pet Lover's, later called Pet Haters by a few people I know, to get a beta fish and ended up with both a beta and a hamster because as an adult who never had a hamster as a child, I felt like having a hamster would be fun for me as well. However, going into this I fully realized I would be completely in charge of this hamster as Ethan cannot care for a pet by myself.

Ethan was so excited to receive his hamster Christmas morning and donned the name Charlie for him. But the real surprise came three days later when Charlie, the apparently girl, had eight babies. I walked in on Monday morning and poof, eight little pink jelly beans sat in the midst of the hamster bedding, wheel and food. They didn't have open eyes or fur and were quite revolting. When my friend Andy asked how they were doing, I announced them to be healthy and that Charlie was being a good mom (because I'd heard hamsters eat their babies which would be a weird thing to explain to Ethan), to which Andy replied, "Drown them!" Honestly, I'd thought about it and was quite disappointed in my single-mother hamster (the little skank), though I'm quite the same situation in a completely different, non-animalistic way.

As the hamster grew, they became more tolerable though quickly filled up the cage, driving Charlie crazy. She escapes a few times a day in her hamster ball, running around the room and relieving all the pressure of being a mom. Until this week, I had all eight in one cage, but slowly I'm sending them to their own homes, and I have six left, including the little guy sitting in front of me. He's headed home with my friend T. Bolger tonight as a surprise for his son Thomas. I really can't wait until this whole deal is finito and I can rest assured knowing Charlie has no other hamster to eat. It haunts me nightly that I'll wake up one morning and there will be a blood-bath of hamster flesh and bone sprayed all over the cage. Let this nightmare be over quickly!

p.s. included are some pics of Ethan from Christmas break. Ones of him being silly and one of him and Uncle Darren.