A Texas Christmas Miracle

It was Christmas Eve, 2004.  As families gathered in their homes to celebrate, snow clouds gathered in south Texas skies. Weather forecasters called for wintry precipitation with a slight chance of snow. 

Like so many Gulf Coast Texans, I'd seen these sensationalist forecasts fall through too many times and figured if we got any snow at all, it would likely be a few flakes spotted in some remote field by a farmer or at best, a powdery dusting like I'd seen a few rare times in my life. I also recalled that the few scant sprinklings we'd had always came in January. Even though Christmas cards portrayed smoke curling from the chimneys of snowbound homes nestled among white tipped evergreens, we'd never in history had snow for Christmas. Even the national weather map a couple of weeks back showed a 0% chance for a white Christmas in my area. Nope, it just wouldn't happen
and I resolved to hope for the more probable sleet.

Just after dusk, tiny pellets of sleet began tapping the house. A short time later, a few tiny snowflakes swirled from the sky, mixing with the sleet. Wow! We were really getting snow! But of course it wouldn't accumulate! Little did I suspect that this snow would grow into large, feathery flakes that would drift down all Christmas Eve night.

By 9 PM the ground had a light covering. Still believing it would melt in a few hours, we took a drive to see our neighborhood adorned in white before it changed back into its usual drab winter dress of brown and gray.Though the hour was late, neighbors emerged from their warm houses to frolic in the falling snow. Excited chatter and laughter could be heard in the streets as bundled up figures chunked snowballs at each other. A few had already built dwarf snowmen. Christmas lights glistened as if in a dream, and when fluffy, white flakes continued to fall steadily toward the midnight hour, the reality of a white Christmas slowly sank in.

We stayed up into the wee hours of the morning just watching the magical show that did not stop until almost daylight. Snow drifted down in the glow of the streetlight and collected softly in roadways, and on cars and trees and shrubs. White fluffy drifts, like whipped cream, banked against storage buildings and fences until the entire landscape was covered with a velvety white blanket.

As if on cue, snow clouds cleared for the Christmas dawn to present its gift of pure white splendor, glittering in all its glory under golden rays of sunlight. God had delivered His finely crafted masterpiece to south Texas just in time for Christmas morn! Wide-eyed children rode new bicycles and 3-wheelers through the snow and grown-ups crunched around the neighborhood snapping pictures and taking in the beauty of a rare winter wonderland. Only one of my dogs had ever seen snow before. Two of them plowed right into it. The others took one look and did a 360 back into the house!

News broadcasts reported that southern Gulf Coast areas had received a record snowfall, with up to 12 inches covering the ground in some places.  A few short days later, our beautiful white snow had all melted away and temperatures climbed, once again, into the 70's. The landscape returned to its usual grays and browns and all signs of our magical Christmas had vanished.

Though the magic faded and we returned to work and daily routine, it's nice to remember the miracle of that white Christmas in south Texas, along with renewed hope that sometimes, even the farthest fetched dreams really can come true.