On Friday morning we awoke to a snow covered Bristol. Shortly after breakfast the school and the preschool were both declared closed for the day. My husband decided that trying to drive to work was unwise and with that the household had an official snow day.

Now despite my aspirations of being a wholesome, outdoorsy, simple life type of family I’m not that great with getting cold or wet. In fact I’m not great with being outside in anything other than full sun or crisp sunny autumnal days. This is my work in progress, I am trying to be less of an outdoor wuss, for the sake of my nature loving husband and my children.

So obviously the rest of the family were keen to get outside, so outside we went. Wrapped in many layers we headed for a nearby slope with our sledge. We had brilliant fun, and I had the ideal excuse to leave the boys and Purpledad at it when Wonder Girl needed to get home for a nap. Snuggled up in the house later with the boys and some hot chocolate you would have thought I had proven myself as super cool outdoors snow fun Mum. You would have been wrong.

I had to take it one step further. Boyed by my success with the sledging and warm from several hours inside I said yes when my boys asked me to go outside again to build a snowman. I did not realise that building a snowman is really bloody hard. I did not understand that to build a snowman you need a degree in eingineering. I had not anticipated that building a snowman would leave me with frozen, painful, fingers.

So firstly there is the picking up snow with your hands issue. Of course you wear gloves which very quickly become cold and wet. So you are picking up snow with wet, cold hands which very quickly become painful. Yet you don’t stop because this is fun!

Then there is the sheer impossibility of making two large round balls of snow which are the correct shape, stick together and not crumble into a heap of ice whilst you are trying to insert a carrot nose.  Honestly I failed at this task. Each time I tried to construct my snowman I ended up with a pile of snow with no discerning shape.

Resisting the urge to cry and stamp my feet (by repeating “I am a grown up and I will stay calm” over and over in my head) I formed a new plan. Using my super cheery high voice I told the children not to worry because Daddy would help. I took my cold self inside, lay my dignity at my husbands feet and asked him to take over. I watched from inside as he proficiently assembled a snowman like a pro. I smiled, took a photo and consoled myself with more hot chocolate.