snow many memories

In case you don't live around here or aren't friends with Oregonians on Facebook- here in the Willamette Valley we have been having uncharacteristically wintry snow fall for the past 3 days. Maybe once a year, we get snow and it is usually- from my Alaska grown eyes- a poor representation of snow, but this storm- it is the real deal. Big fat flakes falling, covering everything in the pillow white that my childhood was made of. My parent took Gabe and my nephew Logan sledding this afternoon while David and I clean the house (and by that I mean David) and bake cinnamon rolls (and by that I mean me).
This has made me nostalgic. Quick Bethany fact sheet: I was born and raised in Fairbanks Alaska. I lived in the same house that my dad build about 4 miles out of town for the entirety of that time. In fact, my dad (when he isn't commuting and working from Salem) and sister still live in a version of that same house today. It has greatly evolved- when I was born it was in fact in an entirely different location and about 1/4 of the current size, but they picked it up, put it on a trailer and moved it to its current home at the end of Tekoa Trail where it has been renovated, added on, adapted, and generally evolved.
In Fairbanks, we do winter really well. Coming here to Oregon and experiencing seasons blew my mind. Oh, Thanksgiving is at harvest time and Easter actually is spring! Since Fairbanks is in the interior of Alaska, the temperatures are pretty extreme: moderately hot in the summer and very cold in the winter. Now to be clear, I loved living in Alaska while I was there, but I was not a sport-sy outdoors girl. My dad basically made me and my sisters go cross country skiing, we didn't have a snowmobile, and Fairbanks doesn't have mountains too close for snowboarding or downhill skiing. So when I was there the 9 months of deep snow and cold temperatures didn't necessarily fill me with delight. But it was my reality and all I had ever experienced and therefore it was good. And my parents really made my childhood fun. When people ask me about Alaska and whether I will go back to live, I am unsure- it seems unlikely, but I say, "It was a great place to grow up." When I was a kid we didn't have cable- no channels. We would watch movies every Friday night, but the rest of our time was not taken up with TV at all. So as a kid my sisters and I were forced into books and other creativity. The aforementioned cross country skiing was a favorite of my dads and so we did this pretty regularly. Although despite the occasional forced activity and absence of television, much of my time- especially as a middle school and as teenager was spent on the phone or reading or being with friends or wanting to be with friends. But there was certainly big chunks of my childhood where I was an classic Alaskan girl- out tromping in the snow, building caves, sledding, playing in the snowy sparse woods with our neighbor. And those I remember fondly. The way that moose in the backyard was normal, seeing gorgeous Denali from our driveway regularly, the pride and craziness of going to school always- even at 40 below, the way a hot springs is the best when it is super cold outside, the way it looks gorgeous and epic all the time. Even though come January I was so over the cold and was going cabin stir crazy. Even though the static electricity was horrible and you have to warm up your cars for 20 minutes before you could go anywhere. Even though it got so cold that you couldn't breath and your eyelashes and nose hairs froze right away. I am grateful for that being the place where so many of my memories exist and when I see the snow fall outside my Oregon window, I just love that glimpse.