8th December

The weather changed from one day to the next. The mild and rather warm weather switched over night and when Maia looked outside her window this morning, she saw white flakes dancing around and the whole land being covered by something white. Maia had heard of snow before but it was the first time she saw it firsthand. She pulled the chair of her room to the window and sat down and just watched the snowflakes hover around and the land around her change into a white wonderland. The dance of the snowflakes had something mesmerizing and hypnotic to it. Maia totally forgot about time and just watched the scenery outside. It was so silent and peaceful. The snow had hidden all colors, but this pure white world seemed to know no problems and no hectic at all. The other houses, barely more than dark shadows behind the curtain of snow, showed hoods of snow on their roofs and the bushes were totally hiding in their white nest.

Maia winced and nearly screamed when the door suddenly opened and the peace and silence of the moment was interrupted. "Do you not want to come for breakfast?" her aunt asked and then saw her sitting in front of the window. "Oh, is this your first time seeing snow?" Maia nodded embarrassed and while her aunt closed the door quickly changed into a more presentable gear than her nightgown. She had totally forgotten about breakfast but now that she was reminded, her stomach was complaining loudly. "Hurry and come down, we are already waiting for you. I am sure Derick will show you all the fun of snow later." And with a pad on the head of Maia and a chuckle, Sophie left the room again and closed the door behind her. Even though she was late, Maia went quickly to the shower, took the shortest shower of her life and after drying her fur she quickly changed into her day clothes. She wore the same gear that she had, when she arrived in the town. It had been washed by Sophie and Maia grabbed it by chance form the cupboard in her haste. All others were already finished with their breakfast but stayed at the table to accompany Maia. She was a bit embarrassed, that they had to stay for her sake and ate so fast that she got it into the wrong way and started to cough. "Slowly dear!" said Sophia, who just brought her cocoa and started to pad her back. "It will not run away." Maia was even more embarrassed now, because in her guilt she had forgotten normal table manners. She threw an apologizing gaze to Sophie and continued much slower with her breakfast.

"By the way Derick." Sophie added, when Maia did not cough anymore. "How about you take Sophie out after breakfast and show her some snow activities? It seems that this is her first time seeing snow." Derick agreed instantly and Maia smiled up to him. He returned the smile and Maia felt her blood rush into her head again. She got the image of the last day still in her head. At least Derick would not pull such a stunt in the snow, she thought. For that it was far too cold now.

When they got out, Derick first led her towards the Rileys, Stripes and in the end to the Parks to get the other kids. Some of them were already playing outside. Milo watched them from a fence and waved to Derick, but with his recovering leg he would not join them. First they showed her how to build a snow man. Derick build one with her, Anthony and Len helped their sister and Chris joined the Parks. They had a lot of fun to compete and try to build the biggest snowman, but in the end, no one could beat Chris and the Parks. The bears were very good at created huge balls of snow and pile them up and Simon even took Fred on his shoulders to place the head of the snow man on top. It stood around three meters and everyone admitted defeat to them. The next thing they began to build was a now house. For this all worked together. They made big blocks of snow, that they made super hard by squeezing and slapping it for a long time and then they placed them next to each other in a big circle, just leaving a small entrance to get in and out. The further they got up, the more they moved to the middle. They were half finished when all the kids had to return home for lunch, but after lunch they continued and Maia did not think it was cold anymore. She sweated a lot and hat to take a break every now and then to not overheat and because she was exhausted. It started to get dark already when they finished with their house. It was big enough for all of them to fit in, but there was not much space left when they tried and they quickly crawled out of the house, because it was super tight. WHAM! A ball of snow hit the cap of Maia and she looked around seeing Arthur already forming a second one. "You will regret that!" laughed Derick and quickly grabbed some snow and form a ball and defend his cousin. It took half a minute for Maia to get over her anger about Arthur hitting her with the snow ball and joining the fight. She understood, while throwing snow at all others, that this was actually fun and they did not hurt at all so there was nothing wrong with getting hit by multiple snow balls. She tried to avoid it though, because it was a fight after all. Derick and Chris stood around her, shielding her from most of the snowballs and returning double the amount to the Parks and Rileys, who started to pile up some snow as a shield. "You build us a shield and we throw." Commanded Derick and Maia went to work. It was hard to evade the snowballs and shove snow to a pile, but finally she managed to get enough for all three of them to duck behind and while they were sitting in hiding, the build new ammunition for the fight.

"Kids, dinner!" came a voice twenty minutes later. It was so dark already, that it was hard to see at all. Only the glimmering squares of the windows spent a bit of light. The snow had started to fall again and made it even harder to look far. Maia saw a shadow closing in and soon others followed. The fathers had been sent to get the children. "All against the fathers!" came the cry of Simon and the aim changed to the newcomers. Maia threw all the snowballs she had left and hit Patrick once on his shoulder, who laughed and with the other adults quickly grabbed some snow and returned the fire. For ten minutes there was screaming and laughter all over, before a loud voice of Maia's aunt shouted into the night. "If you are not returning soon, dinner is served cold." She shouted and rectangle bright boxes at the other houses showed, that the other wives also got out to look for their children and men. With a lot of laughter, the crowd stopped the fight and went to their respective home, after wishing good night to everyone.

"How was your first day with snow?" asked her aunt fifteen minutes later, after they all washed their paws, got rid of their cold and wet clothes and changed into something lighter and dry. "It was great." Maia gleamed with joy. The warm stew was the perfect ending of this day and when she went up, she just fell into bed exhausted but with a happy smile all over her face.