Winter -- the second best day of the year

 A few summers ago, I saw an advert in Helsinki that tried to catch the attention of consumers with some brutal honesty. It said: Summer - the best day of the year. For those not in the know, this refers to the frustrating lack of predictability as to when the "heat wave" (anything above 77F) might arrive. And similarly, the frustrating briefness of this warm happy time. Hence - it's the best day of the year. 

But for the remaining seasons, there is another highlight - the first snow. This is again based on the terrible trend of more recent years called global warming which last year robbed the very south of the country of any snowy time altogether. So when late last Sunday night (as the forecast has been promising for a few days) temperatures dropped and precipitation became white and fluffy, we looked forward to The Day Of Winter, the second best day of the year. There was snow on the ground in the morning, and as we all hopped on our bikes, plenty more came down on the way to school. And the snow was still there when school was out, lasting all afternoon. 

Even the next morning, it was well below freezing, and the sun gave an impressive demonstration of pastels and fiery oranges. It wasn't until the evening when the flakes turned to rain, and overnight, the dream of white was drenched and thawed out. 

We had wondered if we'd have to head far north to Lapland to catch even a bit of snow, but given our Winter Day, decided to not make the very long trip.