Sled While the Snow Shines

This past weekend's snow was the first of the season and JT, apparently unwilling to believe that winter has only just begun, is determined to enjoy every last minute of the snow.  I'm amused by this development because past experience has shown me that sometime around the end of February, JT will declare that winter is OVER and he's ready for swimming weather.  Spring's primary utility for JT is the fact that it's the only highway to get to summer.

But it's not February yet and in the meantime JT is a sledding machine.  Wet snowy mittens, cold feet, and fading light be damned...JT will slide down the hill for as long as I will let him.

Monday, we went sledding at our school, skimming down the steep hill onto the glittering untouched field below. 

 

 It was a beautiful day and, tucked behind the field house at school, the wind didn't bother us a bit. We were the only people there and we sledded for two hours, until I declared that the jig was up (mostly because he had to get home in time to warm up and change into shorts for basketball camp).

On Tuesday, we headed south to scoop up JT's buddy D and sled down the long hills in his neck of the woods.   D's mama S talked me right through her busy town, and we ignored the warnings to park the seld transport vehicle at the edge of a most impressive hill.

 

These hills had to be shared with other similarly-minded kids, but the boys didn't mind, occasionally shouting "look out" as they whizzed down the well-trodden paths, sometimes edging a little too close to the icy creek for a mama's comfort. 

S took a few screaming runs down the hill. 

And as dusk descended, the boys paused for shorter and shorter periods at the top of the hill, knowing that the clock was ticking.

We got back to D's house to find that D's mom T had the hot cocoa and mulled cider ready.  As we wrapped our cold hands around the hot mugs the boys laughed and chattered, reviewing the best runs down the hill. I conclude from this that truncated runs and wipeouts are as much fun as sliding just to the edge of the icy creek (while your mama shouts "be careful").

Happy winter!