A bonus day

Can there be anything nicer than being given an unexpected day off work? At the moment I can't think of anything that could have given our family the joyful boost that a 'snow day' on Monday did. So rare is a decent carpet of snow in the south that everything ground to a halt and it was deemed too risky for teachers and pupils to attempt the journey to school. We live within a 5 minute walk from school and so could easily have made it in but that seemed only to give us the impression that we'd been given an even bigger gift.

We made the most of our family day. We ate cake, had a snowball fight, made a snow penguin, enjoyed a roast chicken dinner together and watched Prince Caspian by the log fire. It really seemed as if it was Christmas Day.

As the children get older I savour these days when they are happy and able to spend a day with us. I am becoming ever more aware of the passing of time and the fast track into 'teenagedom' which, although I am looking forward to seeing them blossom into adults, I slightly dread as it will mean the end of an era that I have loved.