Schnee

It has snowed four times in the past five days.  Last Thursday night left some snow on the ground wherever there was vegetation.  Throughout Friday, it continued to snow in the most peculiar way; after a half an hour of blue skies and sun, white clouds would take over and dispatch snow.  The pattern continued the entire day.  Friday night was also snowy.  Enough snow had stuck to the roads that  I could not safely ride my bike to the train station.  In Mannheim, all of the snow had melted by the time I arrived midday.  By the time I returned to Heidelberg in the evening, much of the snow had melted as well.  Sunday evening was the big snowfall; there was enough snow that the driveway needed to be shoveled.  As I love to shovel, I enjoyed an hour  of clearing a good portion of the driveway.  When the boys awoke from their naps, we headed outside to play in the snow.  Max and Tom loved watching Frosty the Snowman on my computer during the holiday season.  They have never had the chance to rightfully build their own snowman so we got to work.  Max was a pro.  I did not give him any instructions and he quickly returned with a ball the size of himself.  I rolled the base and Tom completed the head.  We gathered some sticks and stones to complete our own Frosty.  Max was the most persistent of my helpers.  Johanna was over for the afternoon and she was the first to quit; Tom pooped out after the collecting; Max helped me until the very end.   Most unfortunately, last night it snowed more which turned to rain so Frosty did not survive the night.  Sabine informed me that Max was upset when he noticed this morning.  The snow is much too wet and heavy to create anything today.  Sabine and I attempted to clear a path down the driveway and that took nearly and hour.  Each shovelful of snow weighed about 10 pounds.  Quite the workout!