Winter Scenes Giveaway – The Believer

Photo by Austris Augusts on Unsplash

When life gives you too much snow, make snow angels.

One of my favorite snow scenes that I almost forgot about when I started thinking about sharing snow scenes from my books is from The Believer, my second Shaker story. In this book I wanted to share more about the Shakers’ history and beliefs. They were very rule centered. They had rules for almost everything, even which foot to step up on the first stair. They wanted all their members to be alike in manner and dress. Conformity was desired to fit into the Society. Each had a place. Each had a purpose. None could stand out and resist the rules.

This could make it very difficult for the person who didn’t fit in, who didn’t want to bend to the rules, who was different in thought and manner. My young character, Hannah, was that person. She was a bit of a wild child who had never been made to conform before she and her older sister and brother came to the Shakers because they had nowhere else to go. Even her hair, so blonde it was almost white with wild curls, did not fit with the Shaker rules as she could not keep it hidden under a cap. The Shaker teacher tried to rein in Hannah’s free spirit, not with love but with complaints and punishing words. So, of course Hannah runs away and when the teacher comes to make her return to the schoolroom, she climbs a tree and dumps snow on the teacher’s head. The eldress in charge of the children’s house sends Elizabeth, the older sister, after her in hopes she can convince Hannah to conform. This following is part of that scene.

Hannah was not hard to find.  Her footprints in the snow were easy to follow from the tree where the original wrong had been committed outside the children’s house. Every few feet there was a new snow angel. The footprints stopped at a small stand of trees back behind the Gathering Family’s house. Elizabeth kept her eyes on the ground as if she couldn’t figure what had happened to the trail of prints and waited.

The minutes passed. No shower of snow came down on her head. She began to wonder if the wind had perhaps whipped away the trace of Hannah’s footprints in this spot or perhaps she sat up in the tree, too frozen to move. She waited another minute. Then without looking up into the branches, she said, “Aren’t you going to drop snow on my head?”

 “No.” Hannah spoke from above Elizabeth. She sounded sad. “The good time for snow dropping has passed. The snow has gone.”

 Elizabeth looked up. She couldn’t see Hannah’s face as she huddled next to the tree trunk not far above her. “There is much snow still under my feet. Is there not even a smidgen of snow left on the limbs?”

“No. The fun is done.” Hannah’s teeth chattered as she spoke and she was trembling. “The wind has blown it all away. It would have blown me away as well, but I have turned into a chunk of ice and the wind said I was too heavy. That I had to stay in this fearsome cold place until I died.”

“Come down from your branch, little snow bird,” Elizabeth said gently. “Let me warm your frozen wings under my cloak.” 

Hannah sat a long moment without moving before she finally looked down at Elizabeth. “I think I may be frozen to the branch.” 

 “Shall I climb up to break you free?”

 “Oh, how I would fain to be free, but Sister Josephine says that such a desire is surely a sin that cannot be allowed. No freedom in this place. Even one’s hair cannot be free to grow as it wills.”

 “Come down, Hannah. Now.”

 “You’re becoming one of them,” Hannah said, but she uncurled her body and climbed down to the lowest branch. “Will you catch me?”

 “I will catch you. I will hold you.”  Elizabeth held up her arms and added softly, “I will love you.”   ….

 “I hear you have been seeing angels.”  Elizabeth kept her cloak around Hannah but turned her to start back toward the Gathering Family house.

 “Only when I get weary of hearing Sister Josephine tell of the Shaker rules. Then an angel comes to rescue my itchy feet.” Hannah looked a little guilty, but then she giggled and spun away from Elizabeth. “But there are really angels all around us here.” She flopped down on the snow and waved her arms and legs. “See.”

“Your fingers and toes are going to fall off if you don’t stay out of the snow.”

“Make an angel with me,” Hannah begged. “Please. Just one bigger angel to protect my little angel.”

She’d have to confess her folly to Sister Ruth later, but Elizabeth turned and flopped back into the snow beside Hannah. The snow was cold as she waved her arms and legs through it, but at the same time she felt a jolt of childish joy. She laughed as she and Hannah got up carefully to keep from spoiling their angels’ wings. 

As she brushed the snow off her skirt and cloak and pushed a stray hair back up under her cap, she looked back at the snow angels and whispered, “May angels watch over us.” 

Hannah came over to slip her hand into Elizabeth’s and lean against her. “These will melt with the sunshine, but there are other angels. I haven’t seen them. Not really the way I told Sister Josephine, but I know they’re there.”

“Our guardian angels,” Elizabeth said softly as she lightly touched Hannah’s head. “Every child has one. Yours will surely watch over you.” 

Upon reading that scene now I wonder if children have always fallen down in the snow to make snow angels. I like to think so, don’t you? That’s my question for you this week.

Have you ever made a snow angel? 

I’m not sure I ever did as a child, but one of my grandkids convinced me to give it a try once. I got snow down the collar of my coat. I think I was too old to experience the joy of snow angels. LOL.

If you leave a comment on the post, you will have an entry into my winter book giveaway chance. If you left a comment on the last post where I shared a scene from Along a Storied Trail, thank you. If you leave a comment on this post, you’ll get another entry to give you an extra chance to win your choice of one of my winter books, including The Believer. 

The deadline for entries is midnight EST, February 10, 2026. Winners will be notified by email and announced on my post on February 11th. You have to be at least 18 years old to enter. Each time you leave a comment on a new post before the deadline, you get another entry. I love when you join the conversation here.  You can answer the snow angel question or comment on the scene or say whether you’ve read any of the Shaker books. Any comment will do.

The prize will be a choice of one of my books with winter weather playing a part. I’ll pick two winners by random.  Each comment will get a number and then I’ll use a random number generator to choose the winning  numbers. There haven’t been a lot of comments yet. Maybe the winter scenes aren’t making the stories appealing in this cold weather spell.