Snow Falling on Igloos

I am one of those people who has a complicated relationship with old man winter. On the one hand, I hate cold, wet weather. On the other, I love the idea of snuggling up to a fire with a good book while it rains or snows outside. Since I currently work in a cold climate, I decided to bend in to my situation a bit. This means I wanted to have some snowy adventures this winter instead of just waiting around grumpily for spring to appear.

I read about an igloo making workshop and decided this was the place to start. I recruited some friends with kids, and off we went into the mountains of southern Germany to learn how to build an igloo. We didn’t have to cut ice or anything, but we did have to gather soft snow into brick molds, and shove them onto our foundation in circular fashion. A few people worked from the inside while the rest of us labored from the outside.

We successfully built an igloo that was perfect for a family of 3 year olds or below, but we were so proud. While the elders of our group went to sit by a fire to munch on cookies and get hot drinks, several of the energetic boys that were in the group began work on a second igloo, complete with a walkway to join it to our original icy dwelling.

After some confusion with the drinks was corrected–some of the children apparently drank some of the hot wine (on accident of course!) while the adults sipped on apple cider– everyone seemed