Here's Liz Atwood with Tween Tuesday: 

I've come to the conclusion I watched too many Campbell's Soup commercials while growing up in the 1970s. Do you remember the ones where the kids are out playing in the snow and Mom heats up a bowl of delicious Campbell's soup, calls the kids in to eat and the rosy-faced smiling children say, "Thanks, Mom!"

Mmm Mmm good.

That is not the way it was at my house as we coped with the Blizzard of 2009 and the first snow day of the year. Have kids changed or what? My boys lazily got out of bed and instead of throwing on their snow pants and boots, they headed for the Xbox and settled down to play video games. After about an hour of watching them lounge around, I couldn't take it any more. Don't you want to go out and play in the snow? I asked. Don't you want to go sledding?

The boys looked at me like I was crazy and declared that they hate sledding. I put my foot down. "You're not going to play video games all day," I told them. They grumbled as they put on their boots, coats and snow pants and headed out to build a snow fort.

Meanwhile, I made hot chocolate from scratch and heated up a batch of homemade chili. Barely an hour later they came inside covered in snow. The younger one complained that the older brother had pushed his face in the snow and he was cold. The older one declared he was "done" with playing in the snow.

I gathered up the wet clothes and offered them a steaming hot cup of chocolate. No thanks, they said, and poured themselves a couple glasses of soda.

"How about chili?" I asked. No. Not hungry. They headed back to the TV and turned on the Xbox.

Mmm Mmm good.

Photo: At least some kids like the snow. Lacy Bollinger, 9, of Towson, sleds down a hill behind Stoneleigh Elementary School on Saturday afternoon. Baltimore Sun photo by Jerry Jackson.