Winter... Finally!!

I was told winters here were quite snowy. I believe the actual quote was "you will be the first to get snow and the last to have it leave." And some locals asked me if I liked snow and when I said I loved it they shook their heads and said, "well... you better because you are going to get a lot of it." But then it didn't snow until mid December, and that snow promptly melted. And all of January was perfectly cool weather with no snow in sight (which was great for pulling blackberry and thistle but terrible for my dreams of snuggling up with a fire in my little Swiss Chalet). But about a week ago... it started to flurry and then it finally snowed!! And stayed cold. And then snowed more... for DAYS!!! The house has a very steep roof and yesterday the snow started sliding off of it and hitting the ground with a mighty whomp! Poor little Sonka spent most of the evening quite sure the Russians were coming. The snow was very powdery for the first couple of days. Which really surprised me. I spent my childhood complaining that CO snow made terrible snowballs and snowmen. But since I haven't bought snowboots yet, I am glad for dry snow!