Awaiting the Major Snow 大雪

I received an email a few days ago from my favorite CCC. They announced that this last Sunday (December 7) was the seasonal marker of 大雪"da xue", or major snow, according to the Chinese agricultural calender. It will be the major snow season of snowstorm in full swing. What an exciting thing! I love snow storms!  I can imagine that Beijing winds, really strong around the area where we live, could make wonderful snow storms! Usually the "da xue" is followed by the following "jie qi" seasonal segments: 

December 22 "dong zhi" or winter solstice, the winter extreme (of sun's height);

January 6 "xiao han" or minor cold, the cold start to become unbearable;

January 20 "da han" or major cold, the coldest time of the year. 

So initially I looked at these seasonal markers as maybe futile. Are we sure about these dates? And then amazingly, yesterday morning, I drew my curtains to the wonderful sight of bright and fluffy flakes dancing mid air in front of our windows. I showed the flakes to Noam whom for a second, looked puzzled about this strange phenomenon. He then smiled as he saw that I was happy. Unfortunately by the time we had a diaper change and a highly requested breakfast, the flakes were gone, leaving the ground wet and the sky grey. Not even have a chance to take a picture!

Alternatively, I am posting for you a picture of one of the Beijing canals, near the Kempisky Hotel. It is beautifully frozen now. I was probably too late by 10 minutes to catch the wonderful light of the late afternoon sun setting down through the fog. 

De first day of snow