For the first fifteen years or so of our marriage, Jim and I lived in Missouri, Arkansas, back to Missouri, then on to North Dakota.  We had winters where we had a little snow, and then there were those years that we had more snow than we wanted.  But, we always had snow!

Then, about twenty-five years ago, give or take a few months, we up and moved way down South to Georgia.  We lived in the suburbs of Atlanta for about fifteen of those years in order to be close to both of our jobs.  Only a couple of times in all those years did we see enough snow to even say it was snow!!   I think the winter of ’93 was the best snow we’d seen in many years.  They actually closed school for nearly a week with about 8+ inches of snow!!  We loved it!

Finally, some friends convinced us that if we moved about fifty miles up the road to the little mountain community of Jasper, Georgia, that we would for certain sure see snow!!!

I believe their words were, “We always get snow.”   Hmmmmmm….. well, we were disappointed to be sure.  In our ten years of living there, we only saw a skimmer of snow on an occasional year here and there.

And so, we simply resigned ourselves to the fact that we would live without snow.  Now to some that might not be a big deal.  And, some might even relish that scenario.  But for us kids who grew up in a land where snow as a vital part of the yearly experience, well, we were just sad.

Living in Georgia was good for us in a lot of ways, don’t get me wrong.  But in ways it was a very hard place to live as well.  We gave up lots of friends, and we gave up having family close by, and we gave up snow.

Last year, we made the final decision to, as soon as our Georgia home sold, move to Arkansas and see how we liked living in the country again.  Hoping, of course, that we would have snow.

Well, we spent last Christmas in our little home on the hill and sure enough we got snow!!!  Christmas night it snowed like I remember it snowing when I was a child.

Of course, it took us the greater part of this past year to get the Georgia house sold, move all our stuff, and get settled in here.  But we are thrilled!!!  Because here it is, the first part of December 2013 and we already have snow.

Of course, I did say to Jim the other day, maybe we should have done this in reverse!!  Maybe, we should have lived in Arkansas for 25 years while we were young and able to deal with all this snow!  And maybe we should have moved to Georgia when we were growing old and needed a milder climate. . .  hindsight. . .

And so . . . here we are, in our little country home just outside of the little town of Evening Shade, Arkansas, enjoying the first snow of the season.