The Everlark Family: Book 1

26 - Snowmen Family

It was now the beginning of December, which meant brutally cold and stormy. The bakery had been closed for three days now from being snowed in.
The very moment I woke up, chills shot up my body, forcing me to shiver uncontrollably. Naturally that meant something had to be wrong with our heater. I swaddled myself in thick blankets and waddled to check the heater. I wasn't surprised when I saw that it was unresponsive; broken; gone. Dammit.   

In an attempt to keep warm, I gathered spare wool blankets from the cabinets and laid them over Willow and Rye. Then I tiptoed into our bedroom and laid one over Peeta, after having swaddled another one around me. 
I watched as Peeta's left eye slowly opened. He smiled, on the verge of a laugh, when he caught a glimpse of me covered in thick blankets. I probably looked ridiculous.  

"Thank you for the blanket." He said. "Why on earth are you wrapped in a cocoon?"
"The heater broke." I sighed.
Peeta rolled his eyes and shifted in bed groggily. "God, really? I had a feeling it was going to break down."
I shrugged as I began to open the curtains. "We can cope with it for now until it's repaired."
The mattress let out a small creak as it Peeta sat up, slowly stretching his arms over his head. 
"We should make a fire."
"I think that would definitely be ideal."

Peeta threw in a few nicely-sized wooden logs into the fire once a flame grew from the kindling. Slowly but surely, the house began to fill with some promising warmth.
"What do you want for breakfast?" Peeta asked once in the kitchen. 
"Whatever you want."
"Omelets?"
"Sure!" Peeta's omelets were terribly hard to pass up.  
Soon the delicious smell of roasted bell peppers and onions began to waft throughout the house, which meant that the kids would be up any minute at the smell of it. 
Rye was the first one out, running to Peeta and I. "Daddy it's cold! I'm hungry!" 
"What are ya making, Dad?" Willow followed in after Rye. 

 "Good morning sleepy heads, and I'm making omelets."
"Yes, my favorite!" Rye exclaimed.  
Once Peeta finished making all of our omelets, we all ate at the table. 
"What about if we do something fun today?" Peeta said, taking a sip of hot tea. 
"Like what? We're pretty snowed in." I replied, chewing. 
"Hmm." Peeta thought. "We could go to. . ."
"We could build a snowman!" Willow jumped up in her chair. 
"Yeah!" Rye added. Both of their faces were lit with excitement. 

I looked out the nearest window, taking in the pure whiteness of snow that encompassed the entire view. It was beautiful out there, but almost awfully cold. Freezing, really. Several degrees below, plus windchill. But my unenthusiastic face instantly turned enthusiastic when I looked into the kids eyes.  
"Okay, yeah. Let's go build a snowman, then."
"Yay!" 
Rye was already at the door, reaching for the knob.
"Hey, hey, Mister--you have to put that coat and those boots on first. C'mon."
 
Once I bundled up the kids, and myself, we stepped out into icy tundra of freezing air. My bare face was hit with the brutal coldness, turning it red and num. Big puffs of trailing breath escaped our mouths when we opened them. 
"God, it's cold." Peeta hugged his arms. "I should probably shovel a pathway so we can see ahead of us."
"Good idea," I sniffled, "I'll go get the shovel."

"Okay." Peeta huffed, a cloud of his cold breath followed. "Pathway is complete, guys. Go on and play."
He had shoveled a clear pathway that was wide enough for all of us. The hard effort left his face even redder than it already had been. 
"Let's build a snowman now!" Willow skipped along the crunchy ground, gesturing for us to follow her. We did. Peeta, Rye, and I helped to roll big, thick mounds of snow, piling them up into the form of a snowman. 
"What's the snowman's name?" Peeta asked the kids.
"Dad." Rye replied.
"Oh, that's me?" Peeta laughed.
"Yeah!"
"Don't worry, Mommy. We'll make you too!" Willow added. 

Though I was wearing snow gloves, my hands were still chapped, somehow stinging from the cold snow as we all tediously rolled mounds of snow, making our family of snowmen. 
"Good job! We all look good." Willow said, referring to our individual snowman replicas. 
"I agree, nice work, guys!" Peeta high-fived them. 
"Okay, now it's time to get back inside." I said.
Rye groaned, "Why? We were gonna make a snow village." 
"I don't think we have ti--"
"I know, let's have a snowball fight!" Rye chanted.
"Please mommy!" Willow begged. I sighed, glancing at Peeta. He had that look in his eyes.
"Alright."

"Let the snowball fight begin!" Peeta announced. We all crouched down, packing small balls of ice into our palms. Suddenly my competitive side was starting to show.
"Watch out!" Peeta yelled as snow smacked into my right ear.
Now my competitive side was really showing.  "PEETA, you asked for it."
"Ouch!" Peeta yelled when I hurled a snowball at his back. I ran to him, tackling him to the ground. Laughing uncontrollably, kissing joyfully. 
"Eww!" The kids squealed as they watched Peeta and I. We all laughed together.