Let It Snow…Somewhere Else!

Friday, March 17, 2006

Page 15

AT THE SIDEBAR (Column)

Let It Snow…Somewhere Else!

By J’AMY PACHECO

It was to have been a weekend filled with the stuff of dreams.

We had reservations at our favorite hotel — Disneyland’s flagship – and couldn’t wait to go to sleep gazing at Tinker Bell sprinkling pixie dust on the walls of our room. Even more exciting, thanks to some relatives who are far better connected than we could ever hope to be, we had dinner reservations at the park’s exclusive, members-only Club 33. The thought of buzzing the intercom on the club’s secret door and actually being admitted was almost too much for this family of Disney addicts to bear.

We’d planned this weekend getaway months in advance as a belated birthday celebration for my daughter, who turned 10 last month. It would have been her third or fourth celebration, but this one was special because her grandparents would be joining us.

So it was with some dismay that I noticed about a week in advance of the trip that rain was forecast for the weekend. Not only at the Disney Resort, but also at my house, Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and everywhere else in Southern California.

By Thursday, the weather forecasts had grown so dismal that we knew we should postpone the trip. Snow was predicted for our region, and that would likely make it impossible for us to travel through the mountain pass separating us from Disneyland.

But with the spring break season starting, and the busy schedule kept by Grandma and Grandpa, it turned out the next weekend we could go was in late May.

The birthday girl was devastated. She cried so long and so hard that she ended up hiccupping. Even I was surprised at how upset the news made my emotional little girl. Finally, she revealed the reason:

“It’s all my fault,” she sobbed. “I asked Santa to make it snow!” I pointed out that when she made her Christmas list last November, there was no specific request that Santa make it snow over her Disney weekend.

“But I said whenever it was convenient!” she sobbed.

Fortunately, Santa came through and we awoke Saturday to snow. Unfortunately, it was that thin, powdery kind of snow that you can see right through to the grass, and that doesn’t hold together very well.

But we made the best of it. We dragged ourselves out of bed at the crack of dawn, and made an attempt at building a snowman. A really little snowman that ended up looking so much like a duck we decided that’s what it was.

It was actually a pretty good little duck, and if that’s what we’d been making, I could say we did a great job. He was so cute that we couldn’t bear to let him melt in the rising sun, so we stuck him in the freezer, where he resides as I write this.

The snow was melted by early morning, so we went to the movies. By the time we came out, snow flurries were flying again. By dinnertime, it was starting to stick.

Sunday morning, we awoke to more snow, but it wasn’t any easier to shape than the previous day’s supply. What started out to be another snowman ended up looking like – well, like a pile of snow.

“Mom!” my Disney girl cried. “It looks like the Matterhorn!” She was right — it did look remarkably like Disneyland’s landmark white mountain. So we brought out two tiny Mickey Mouse figures seated in tiny bobsleds, and had them race around our mountain. A Disneyland castle playset in the background completed the look, and we had our own little Disneyland in our front yard.

Long after the rest of the snow had melted, the Matterhorn remained in our yard, growing smaller with each passing hour. Eventually, it was little more than an ice cube in the grass, but it made us happy to look out the window and see it there.

When I tucked my daughter into bed Sunday night, I reminded her that she still had the “special” weekend to look forward to.

“If we’d gone this weekend, it would all be over,” I told her. She looked at me like I was nuts.

“But I would have had all that fun,” she countered.

So Santa, if you’re out there reading this, I have a request. Please get all of the snow, rain, hail, sleet, thunder, lightening and flooding out of the way by the end of April. That goes double for earthquakes, fires, tsunamis, falling asteroids and packs of rabid dingoes.

If it’s convenient, of course.