Marshmallow World

Tonight I went for the first time to Stony Point Fashion Park in Richmond. It's this outdoor, kind of posh, dog friendly shopping mall. Most of the stores are high end like Saks Fifth Avenue and Louis Vutton but the place is littered with dogs and doggie comfort stations. These are rest areas for dogs complete with communal water dishes. A lot of the stores are pet friendly and have little signs low enough for the dogs to read, welcoming them. Since Christmas is coming, the place was decked out in beautiful lights and carols were playing. There's a tiny ice skating area where you can rent skates and waltz around, but next to the rink is a massive Christmas tree, completely covered in colourful lights and ornaments. Lots of people were there with their kids and pets, getting their pictures taken, but I was there for a completely different reason. At 7pm every night, Stony Point Fashion Park has snow. Manufactured snow to be precise. At seven on the dot, a whirring sound started coming from the top of the buildings around the tree and snowflakes started to shoot out of the unseen ducts and onto the squealing children below. Everyone was smiling and hoping around in the 'snow'. Sure, it was fake snow and it only went on for about 10 minutes and kind of looked like soap bubbles when it landed on my coat, but it was really festive and kind of beautiful. I've seen the real thing every year of my life, but here in Virginia where snow isn't that common, it was nice to see something so wholesome and simple make so many people happy. God, was that sugary or what?