What To Eat On The Coldest Day Of The Year

First you must eat- nothing. Drink a lot of excellent hot coffee before the sun comes up and watch your windows like a child looking for fairies and when you don't see any snow yet, for the hundredth look...keep looking. You're only getting older and who cares?

When twelve pm rolls around and there is a) no snow yet and b) you find your stomach gnawing on your intestines: eat a bowl of Tenement stew which will put the piss back in your bladder and steam in your lungs. It won't make the snow come but you'll start to feel like snow isn't all there is to love in life.

Later in the day, when you have become crazy from the nagging of your child and are really wishing to feel the chill on your cheeks, head to the nearest ice cream shop. If you need something to do, this is really something to do! Ice cream tastes great and on a freezing day it will make you feel like you just skied a mountain even if you live in a valley. Your whole body will shiver and you will feel awake with the sugar and the cold!

It will also make the snow come.

Be sure to walk in it-breath it-grab it-shake it-and drink in it!

But most of all, when the snow comes, you must eat it. Big fistfuls of it!

I know I must be raising my kid right because as we were walking to a friend's house yesterday it began to snow, lightly first, and then in flurries, almost like a blizzard and we had been hoping for it all day long. Wistfully snatching glances through icy windows. He begins to play with the light pile-up and writes a few choice words: poop, butt, pop, and soap. Boys have a way of artfully avoiding prissy language. Later when we were walking to our other friends' house for dinner the snow had piled up nicely and my kid tells me we must eat some right now!

I taught him that when it snows fresh you must always eat some. Always! Because it is the best, crisp, metallic, silver, sharp, clean, and delightful food the earth sends us in the winter. We ate fresh fistfuls of it until our hands were too cold to scoop it up anymore.

Later we were warm and happy hanging out at our friends Jim and Ericka's house. Watching stupid kid Christmas movies and enjoying how much the low humor made Max bust up laughing hard, enjoying the mushroom pasta Jim made, and imbibing many tasty beverages. We kept looking out the window and wondering how Philip was doing driving home. Wishing he could be here with us. Wrapped up in all the very best a person can hope for in life.

At some point, after we noticed in awe how deep the snow had gotten in an area not known for getting much snow, we decided that a romp in the snow was necessary. We bundled up and with Jim and Ericka's dogs we played in the front yard. We: threw snowballs at each other, threw snowballs for the dogs to catch, we ATE more snow, we chased each other, we laughed, one of us got express permission to create some "yellow snow", we poked at frozen pools of water, and we stomped our cold wet feet.

As we were going back inside Max said how he wished his dad had been there because he would have had so much fun with us.

He also said about his dad being away for two days that nothing was right without him.

How fucking sweet is that kid?