Whipping up a white Christmas
By Darleen Principe darleen@theacorn.com

Photos by IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers SNOW MAN- Neighbors look on as Doug Farnsworth from North Hollywood Ice Co. sprays Janet Rejkowski's frontyard with 10 tons of chopped ice on Christmas Eve. Rejkowski, at right, watches her family and neighbors, including Ryan Andrews, 15, and brother Noah, 10 (bottom right) frolic. "I just wanted to have a white Christmas," said Rejkowski, who enjoyed visiting Ohio relatives as a child.

The sun was bright and hot this Christmas Eve. The 70degree afternoon made it one of the warmest days of the month thus far in Simi Valley. But that little weather glitch didn't stop Janet Rejkowski from making her dream of a white Christmas come true.

Shortly after 4 p.m., as the cool night breeze began to approach, two trucks from the North Hollywood Ice Co. parked in front of Rejkowski's house on Cochran Street.

Neighbors and their children watched in wonder as the ice experts stuffed large blocks of ice into a grinder- which would blow a total of 10 tons of snow onto Rejkowski's frontyard.

The 52-year-old Simi resident had been thinking about doing this for years. She booked an appointment with the ice company in July.

"There's a child in all of us," she said with a smile. "I always knew that I was going to do this."

Rejkowski, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley and moved to Simi Valley eight years ago, recalled visiting relatives in Ohio during the holidays as a young girl. Like many other snowdeprived Southern Californians, Rejkowski always wished she could bring the snow home with her.

This year, instead of wishing, she invested in a $3,000 snow blanket, about a foot deep, to remind herself of childhood and to give her party guests a small taste of an East Coast winter.

"I've always wanted a white Christmas. A few years ago, I did it with artificial snow- the kind using the soap. It just wasn't quite right."

If she had booked the snow date for any day before Christmas Eve, it would have only cost her about half the price. But she knew what she wanted.

"You only live once," Rejkowski said. "Plus I think it'll be a gas for my neighbors and the kids in the neighborhood."

She was right.

By 5:30 p.m., Rejkowski's lawn had been transformed from a warm, grassy knoll into a winter wonderland for friends and neighbors, who played in the snow and threw snowballs at each other from either side of the driveway.

Although the ice company couldn't predict how long the snow would last- that depended on the weather- Rejkowski hoped it would last at least until Christmas morning.

Either way, this Southern Californian got her Christmas wish.