Author's Note: Here is Chapter 1! The prologue takes place a month after the other chapters.

December

Hanna

The faintest line of sunlight graced the youthful flush of the child's cheeks, its slanted directionality brightening her golden locks as they splayed around her pale visage, making her look somewhat angelic - just like the one she was currently making in the otherwise untouched snow.

"Mommy, come lay with me! My angel needs a mommy too! Hurry up, the snow is gonna melt! Hurry, hurry!"

Hanna laughed at her daughter's exuberance, a trait she had undoubtedly inherited from herself, although, at times like these especially, her frenetic personality was quite taxing.

As her daughter continued to beckon her mother with grandiose hand gestures, without a vestige of yelling and screaming, Hanna acknowledged her efforts with a weak smile and tired sigh.

She had barely gotten any sleep the night before, having finished night school at an ungodly hour. Soon after - what felt like a few mere minutes - interrupting the sleep she did get, a squeal of excitement pierced the air, juxtaposed with the sunrise of the early morning.

"It's snowing!"

It was Paisley, standing at the threshold of the opened door, staring intently at the big flakes whirling around her bare feet - as if she couldn't believe it. "Paisley, sweetie please shut the door, you're letting all the cold air in. And I don't want you catching a cold." Paisley did as she was told, but not before a rapid-fire interrogation.

Why would I catch a cold?
Can we go play in it?
Isn't it pretty?
I want blueberry pancakes for breakfast, can we make some? Ooh, maybe some orange juice too...would it taste gross if I dipped the pancake in it?
Maybe Sparkles would eat it? Can she play in the snow too?

Hanna laughed, "yes, to all of them. Now close the door Pais."

After a filling breakfast of blueberry pancakes - extra syrup for Paisley - her and Hanna went to suit up in their snowsuits and and other winter attire - the last being the earmuffs pulled snugly over the girl's petite ears a minute or so later. "Ready!" she announced, clapping her glove-encased hands together with an air of finality.

The two jaunted into the backyard, through the back door, and as soon as Paisley had gotten bored with attempting to catch falling flakes atop her tongue, she had flopped down with the grace of a basset hound after a long walk, and positioned herself as to make a snow angel: moving her arms first, then her legs, until they were a simultaneity of careful movements.

"Come on mommy!"

Hanna smiled, standing by the door they'd just come out of not five minutes ago, and only watched, amazed that her juvenile liking for snow angels has yet to give way to tobogganing or snow-tubing, much like other kids her age. Even if she was only five, it still came as a surprise to her. Hanna was a thrill-seeker and had fully expected her daughter to be the same. At this age, Hanna had been an experienced tobogganer and tuber alike, winning all the races she and her friends insisted on having every year when the snowfall hit.

Now, Paisley seemed to be getting fed up, rising to her full height and running across the yard to where her mother stood, "come play with me!" she was saying; the bits of hair flying into her mouth as she did so seemingly not bothersome, nor was the cold, apparently, as the earmuffs too, came off in her fervor.

Paisley reached her mother in seconds, although, having ran across the yard, her breaths were now labored; the conspicuous chill emitting from her lips synonymous to Hanna's, as were the reddened ears.

"Okay baby, put your earmuffs back on," Hanna told her, going to pick up the fallen article from the snow on which she walked, littered with footprints. She held them out to her.

"No mommy," Paisley rejected, pushing the muffs towards Hanna instead. "You put them on. You look cold!" The little girl pantomimed for exaggerated effect, pretending to shiver.

"Now you look cold!" Hanna chuckled, and placed the earmuffs delicately over her daughter's ears without waiting for a response.

Paisley hadn't seemed to take notice, too busy now anticipating another snow angel as she tugged on her mommy's hand. "Angel now!"

Hanna laughed and scooped up her unsuspecting daughter in her arms. "Mommy put me down!" she whined, flailing about in her attempt to be free. "Okay, if that's what you really want!" Paisley nodded her head incessantly. "Ready?" she asked her, looking to Paisley for confirmation who simply nodded. "Yes! Yes!" With that, Hanna tossed her daughter, gently, into a heaping snow pile, cushy with layers upon layers of fresh snow. "Eeeh!" Paisley squalled as she flew, landing gracefully a second later. "Was that fun?" Hanna asked her, giggling despite herself. Paisley only nodded 'yes' accompanied with a half-hearted "uh-huh", as she looked to the snow, then her mommy and back again.

"Angel!" she cried again, as she started making yet another one - three already engraved in various parts of the yard. Paisley was also very persistent, which proved at times to be a hassle. Bedtime is a prime example.

"Oh alright," Hanna surrendered playfully, lying next to her daughter. "Can you show me how?" Paisley happily obliged and the two spent the rest of the afternoon in the snow, laughing and giggling all the while.

Author's Note: This is more of an introduction than first chapter... but oh well.. R and R ( Read and Review!)