Adelaide B. Shaw

The First Snow

The Christmas season. Our three young children are anticipating their first encounter with snow. On a narrow side street in Geneva in front of a small market we see a few pine trees. None is over four feet or very full. Still, they are real trees and fragrant. We pick out the fullest and most evenly formed and carry it the four blocks to our apartment. With no working elevator, my husband and I and the children hoist the tree up the five flights of stairs. Next the ornaments. Not the glittery glow of our usual ornaments which are in storage, but candy canes, paper snowflakes, paper chains and popcorn strings.

watching my children
catch snow on their tongues
better than memories