Christmas In March;

She woke up and everything outside her window was covered in white. It blanketed the ground and clung to tree branches, causing them to sag lower than normal. If it weren't for a row of grayish trees in the distance, it would have been almost impossible to tell where land stopped and sky began. Branches of the tall pine trees that lined her long driveway waved in wind that seemed to get stronger the further up she looked. Every once in a while, gravity would reach up and pull a pile of snow from somewhere high in the tree down to earth. She watched the brilliant white powder drop from a branch and plummet towards the fluffy, inviting snow beneath it, waiting to cushion its fall.

Giggling and jumping up and down excitedly, the girl rushed downstairs to throw on her snow things. She hurriedly piled them on until she looked like a giant, colorful marshmallow, then waddled awkwardly but enthusiastically out into the snowy wonderland that Mother Nature had waited until March to produce.

The cold breeze made her eyes water a little. Her cheeks brightened with color, and with every step, she sank deeper and deeper into the snow. The tiny flakes that continued to float down from the sky blew blew pleasantly into her face, and stuck to her eyelashes and rosy cheeks before melting and forming tiny water droplets that clung to her warm skin; she stuck her tongue out and was delighted by the fresh, watery taste that the snowflakes left in her mouth.

Snow had arrived a few months late in the dairy state, but finally, on March 3rd, winter had begun.