Christmas Chronicles: Sledding Day

The Monday after Christmas, our neck of the woods was scheduled to have a whopping snowstorm., and everyone here, needless to say, was thrilled at the prospect!  Nobody was traveling, we had plenty of food and provisions stored, and we'd just gotten a new sled and new waterproof gloves all 'round, We were ready for the snow games to begin! It was all just a matter of nature cooperating with our plans.  And it did!  For the most part, anyway.

We had been hearing that we could get between  8"- and 12" of snow throughout the day on Monday, and we did end up getting a good amount -- an additional 4" or so of powder -- added to the roughly 6"of iced-over base from the week before Christmas).  But here's the thing that we didn't figure into our excitement: the COLD!  I mean BRRRR!  The thermometer read about 14 degrees, but the wind was blowing a gale, at least it was at the top of "Ice Cap Mountain" (there was almost no wind down at the house as we are protected by the big hill and trees behind us, thankfully!).  But the windchill up top of the sledding hill had to be -5! Ohmygosh! It took your breath away!

But do you think that would stop us?  Goodness, no! Here are some pictures of the day.  (All I could manage before my fingers froze, anyway!)

The trek through the woods behind the house, on the way to the sledding hills.

That's Anna there, who was right in front of Dan and me on the upward slog.
But, who's that coming down the hill on the green sled?

Still can't quite tell. He was coming really fast!

And before we could really react, we realized that he was coming, indeed! --
directly at US!

And missed hitting us by about 2' maybe!  The stinker!  You know he did
that on purpose!

And who was it?  Dominic, of course!  "Nanook of the North!"

There he goes, back up the hill, with us following.  (Huffing and puffing by this time,
and the wind is starting to hit us, full force, now that we're out of the cover of the
trees.)

Here we found William (pink hat) and Gabriel (red hat) already at the top,
having already sledded down a couple times.

The wind is blowing right through Theresa's hat.  But Anna's hat (a gift from
Paul, her KK),is doing a great job for her ears!

Here's the sledding gang, December 28th, 2015 (l-r): William, Dominic,Cathy,
Theresa, Gabriel, Anna, Dan -- and me, behind the camera)

Gabe is already worn out.  No kidding, the wind and tramping up and down
the hill takes it out of ya!

William. His cheeks match his hat.  He was cold! But he was a trooper,
broken arm and all!  (He only actually sledded down a couple times and was
very careful, but figured the cast protected his arm one arm pretty well.  The
other bones were still at risk, though... Mom tries not to linger on that notion..)

Cathy.  Squinting in the wind.

Gabe.  Brrrrr!

Me.  Can't we take this picture with my back to the wind?

Me with Dan.  :)  He didn't do a very good job of keeping me warm out there,
 though I told him that was probably in the contract somewhere.

Anna.  Pink cheeks!

Theresa. Pink cheeks!

Trudging up the hill.  Can you see the general path, down to the right of that
big tree?  The whole goal is to not hit that big tree, but to get some more
speed as you go over that last rise and make it all the way down to the
electric fence -- without hitting the electric fence (not hot, but, well... you
wouldn't want to be clothes-lined by it...)

After a couple hours, everyone's getting tired and cold.

Dan's ready to call it a day.  He and I headed down to the house first and put
on a big pot of hot chocolate.

And they all came trooping in a little while later:

Anna. "Where's the Cocoa?"

Cathy.  Looking very Nordic.

Gabe.  His teeth still chattering.

Theresa, with a bloody nose and fogged up glasses.
Seems the very last run, she came down on the sled behind Dominic
and hit the back of his head with her poor little nose!  She was OK, though,
Dominic's head suffered no ill effects, and everyone considered it a successful
event, regardless. Especially after they all had cups of cocoa in hand and had
a chance to warm up by the fire.