Winter’s here in Montreal! Who loves winter the most? Kids! Why is that? No snow tires to buy. No icy roads to dread. No shoveling to do. So what’s left? Play!

I was going to write about the joys of kids playing in winter, but then I remembered – I already did, last year! The post was called:

Remember the smell of wet wool mittens?

… and in case you missed it, I’ll copy/paste it right here for you. Oh, and with a new photo I found on Flickr.com, all the better to help you reminisce!

Remember the smell of wet wool mittens?

I had forgotten it – until I looked out the window a minute ago. What did I see?

I saw a winter-wonderland tableau, featuring two kids who, from my faraway vantage point, seemed to be about 8 or 9 years old, having the time of their lives, in their snowsuits, playing on a giant mound of snow.

Crunchy new white snow, by the look of it – rising to 12 feet high, created by a parking-lot snow-plow in the wake of our belated first winter storm yesterday.

Memories!  Jumping off garage roofs, heedlessly, landing in the soft, fluffy white stuff with a plop! Flakes clinging to  our lashes. Glasses fogging up, if we had to wear them. My friends and I, staying outside for hours, building ‘forts’ which of course we had to defend with snowballs from our marauding classmates.

Our cheeks were perpetually rosy; our noses, dripping.

Finally back inside, our mittens cold and wet. That smell of wet wool… mingled with the aroma of hot cocoa our moms prepared for us.

Those days… those days…