Did you hear that it snowed in North Carolina this weekend?  Charlotte saw a dusting of snow, followed by freezing rain and sleet.  Hickory got around 5 inches of snow and the High Country got who the heck knows how much.

Some people lost their minds before the snow started.  Buying all the bread and milk at Harris Teeter for their milk sandwiches.  One person I know was so overwhelmed with excitement that she left her sack o’ meat at Food Lion (name starts with Susan and ends with Chaney). But I kept my cool. Snow, awesome. Now that I’ve been in my house for 72 hours I’m singing a different tune. Showering is no longer a priority, a triple word score has become a thrill, and leaving the house either needs to happen today or never again.

Now all I can do is prepare for the next Snowmageddon. Facebook is telling me that a lot of people made it to Sugar, Beech and App Ski Mountain this weekend.  Or they went cross country skiing near the Blue Ridge Parkway. All of these friends were smart enough to buy a house in town. For those of us insisting on living in the sticks it isn’t quite as simple.  Next time I’m snowed in I’m going to clean out my closet, do YouTube yoga, wipe down all of my cabinets, read more, and online shop less. I swear!

I’m also going to be prepared to entertain my stir crazy kid. Here are some snow day ideas from a blogger mom Jenn at Frugal Upstate. She has her schnitzel together.

Hey, I did master the first one.

• Stay in your PJ’s all day
• Make homemade play dough
• Make homemade finger paints
• Build a fort of old boxes & sofa cushions
• Build a tent with a sheet.
• Watch old musicals like Singing In the Rain.
• Have an indoor picnic.
• Make Bread-for extra fun let the kids “sculpt” with the dough-their creations can be baked & eaten
• Bake Cookies-I like these shaped gingerbread cookies because they don’t have to chill, but drop or bar cookies are fun too.
• Make snow “ice cream”
• Make maple syrup “candy” with snow (ala Little House on the Prairie!)
• Have a taffy pull
• Make maple syrup/honey snow cones!
• Make chocolate covered pretzels (or chocolate covered whatever you have in the pantry-it all tastes good w/chocolate!)
• Bring a baby pool inside with snow to play and make snow castles.
• Curl up on the couch with a hot cup of tea (or hot chocolate) and read a good book. Or two. Or three.
• Make homemade soft pretzels, like from the mall.
• Write letters to anyone from Grandma to your congressman.
• Play board games. Maybe have a tournament.
• Play card games.
• Do “Snow Art”-use small snowballs as paintbrushes with watercolors. Note-a trash bag under the paper saves you a lot on cleanup!
• Play video or computer games.
• Make a torn paper mosaic
• Feed you birdy friends by stringing popcorn to hang on a tree or making a pine cone birdfeeder.
• Make paper mache bowls. (note-this tutorial uses a pumpkin instead of a balloon. You can use the same cling wrap technique on another bowl instead)
• Color on some free printable coloring pages.
• Let the kids choose the dinner menu and have them help you cook.
• Have a pretend fashion shoot.
• Make some toys and models with free printable paper crafts from Canon. (note: trust me, there are things for teens on here-the copy of the Russian church with onion domes is gorgeous & complex)
• Make paper beads.
• Make melted crayon art.
• Make new crayons from some old ones.
• Have a snowball fight!!!
• Make a snowman.
• Make snow angels.
• Go snowshoeing or cross country skiing.
• Build a snow fort.
• Go sledding. No sled, no worries! Go cardboard sledding.
• Play some snow games.

Making paper beads sounds like a special kind of torture, but I’ll take snow ice cream for a spin!  Happy winter!

Snow Cream Recipe
Ingredients
4 cups fresh snow
1 cup cream or milk
¾ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
Mix it all together and eat it