Snow Fever

Winter can now start for real. I know the actual first day of winter is a couple of weeks away, but in Minnesota the first day is the first real snowfall. We awoke Saturday morning to flurries which escalated to blowing and drifting snow by noon. Naturally, the kids and I got our sleds down and headed for the hill. Our hill is located near City Hall, so we also got to see the fleet of snow plows marching out to opening day of their season.

Saturday is the best day to have a lot of snow. Because you are able to recover your out of shape, hill climbing muscles on Sunday. Here's an important tip about sledding with your kids. Get them used to the idea of pulling their own sled up the hill as early as possible. Getting yourself up a slippery, steep incline is enough work without pulling an extra fifty pounds of kid, boots, snow pants and nose-cicles.

We had a blast at the hill on Saturday. The unique thing about our sledding hill is that it is the only hill I know of with a real live manhole located half way down. I have no idea why it is there. Since our hill is close to City Hall, it must be a secret exit from those City Hall meetings. Anyway, since our hill is steep and the manhole cover is level, it acts as a jumping off point for daring sledders trying to practice their X-Games jumps. Number One Son got pretty good steering his sled over the 'manhole ramp' and was getting serious air time. Sweet Pea always steered away from any bumps.

I thought I would see if I could get as big a jump as N1S. After I hit the jump I remembered that I weigh quite a bit more than N1S. I also remembered that I am not nine years old and that my tailbone is not very protected on a sled. I wish I would have remembered these things before I was airborn. I could feel the impact travel up my spine right into my jaw. When my kids saw me rolling in the snow at the bottom of the hill, Sweet Pea asked if she could make snow angels too.

Needless to say, that was my last run down the hill for that day.

But it was a great way to spend the first snow day of the season. It's too bad the day ended with 'Extreme Shovelling' in the driveway.