“Guess what?” I said that night at dinner.

“You learned how to spell your name today?” said Suzie.

“Oh, ha-ha! You think you’re so funny, but you’re not!”

Suzie grinned.

“What?” asked my dad.

“Do you know Josh has never seen snow? Can you believe it?”

“Never?” said my mom.

“Nope. Never. He said it didn’t snow where he used to live in California.”

“How can you have Christmas without snow?” said Suzie.

“He said that last Christmas he was on the beach, surfing and building sandcastles.”

“So he was wearing a bathing suit, and you were wearing snow pants, boots, mittens, a hat, and a winter coat,” said my mom. “That’s funny.”

“I know,” I said. “Really funny.”

“What did he think when he went out to recess today?” asked my dad.

“He loved the snow,” I told him. “I taught him how to make snow angels.”

“He didn’t think it was too cold?” said my mom.

“No. He was even eating it right out of his gloves.”

“I hope you told him not to eat yellow snow,” said Suzie.

“EEEWWW! That’s gross,” I said. “I’m trying to eat dinner.”

“Well, he’s in for a real treat tomorrow,” said my mom. “I think it’s going to be a snow day.”

“We’re supposed to get about twelve inches tonight,” said my dad. “I’d be surprised if you had school tomorrow.”

I jumped out of my chair to do a happy dance. I sang, “It’s a snow day! It’s a snow day!” While I was dancing, I accidentally knocked over my glass of milk. A stream of milk raced across the table and into Suzie’s lap.

She jumped up. “UGGGHHH! Now look what you’ve done, you big pain! I’m covered in milk.”

I kept singing. “It’s a snow day! It’s a snow day!”

“Freddy,” said my mom, “stop dancing and apologize to your sister.”

“Oh, uh, sorry, Suzie,” I said. “I’m just really excited.”

“Now I have to go change before I can finish eating,” said Suzie. “You are so annoying.”

Suzie left the room, and my mom said, “Freddy, go get a sponge to clean this up right now. What a mess!”

“It wouldn’t be such a mess if we had a cat or a dog,” I said. “They would just lick it all up.”

“Nice try,” said my dad. “But you know your mother is never going to agree to any pet other than a fish.”

“Now go get a sponge,” my mom said again, “unless you want to lick the milk off the floor.”

I got down on my hands and knees and stuck out my tongue.

“Freddy!” my mom screamed. “I was just joking. Do not lick that milk off the floor.”

I started to laugh. “I was just joking, too, Mom.”

“Thank goodness,” she said. “I was worried there for a minute. Now for the third time, go get a sponge!”

I went over to the sink, got a sponge, and came back to the table.

“Make sure you clean all of it up,” said my mom. “I don’t want Suzie sitting in a sticky chair.”

Just then Suzie came back in the room. “Yeah, you’d better get all of it, Shark Breath. I don’t want to have a sticky butt.”

I wiped up the spill and sat back down.

“Thank you, Freddy, for cleaning that up,” said my mom. “Now what were we talking about?”

“A snow day!” I said.

“Oh yes,” said my mom. “How could I forget? You were doing a snow-day dance when this whole spill happened.”

“So do you two have big plans for tomorrow?” asked my dad.

“Kimberly is going to come over, and we are going to stay inside and make some of those cool new bracelets everyone is wearing,” said Suzie.

“You mean the ones with the colored rubber bands?” my mom said.

“Oh, those are really cool,” I said. “Everyone in my class is wearing them.”

“I know,” said Suzie. “All the kids have them. Kimberly just got one of the kits to make them, so she’s going to bring it over.”

“Will you make one for me?” I asked Suzie.

“Maybe.”

“Come on, Suzie,” said my mom. “You can make one for Freddy.”

“Not if he keeps dumping milk in my lap.”

“That was an accident,” I said.

“Well, if you weren’t jumping around like a weirdo, those accidents wouldn’t happen,” Suzie said.

“How about you, Freddy?” asked my dad. “Do you have any plans?”

“I do,” I said.

“I hope you plan to be outside. I remember when I had snow days as a kid,” said my dad. “My favorite thing to do was to play in all the fresh snow. We’d make snowmen, and have snowball fights, and build snow forts.”

“That’s what I plan on doing,” I said. “Josh and Robbie and I are going to do all of that stuff.”

“Where?” asked my mom.

“On Potter’s Farm.”

“There’s a great sledding hill over there,” said my dad.

“Yeah. Cherry Hill,” said Suzie. “But Freddy will never go sledding there.”

“Why not?” asked my dad.

“Because it’s steep, and he’s too much of a scaredy-cat.”

“I am not,” I said.

“You are, too,” said Suzie.

“Am not!”

“Are, too! Whenever we have a snow day, everyone goes sledding on Cherry Hill except you.”

“Well, I’m definitely going this year,” I said.

“Oh really?” said Suzie.

“Really,” I said.

“Why will this year be any different?” she asked.

“Because of some advice Josh gave me.”

“Josh?” said my mom. “But I thought he hasn’t been sledding before.”

“He hasn’t, but he’s a cool kid, and he gave me some cool advice.”

“I like that attitude,” said my dad.

“Yep. This year I will not chicken out,” I said to my family, and then I whispered it again to myself, “I will not chicken out.”