Long days and longer days

With the end of 08 finding us outside so often, 09 is beginning to look a lot like my living room. There was holiday travel and even a couple of short hikes and some driveway hockey, but as the days have gotten longer they have really gotten longer. We are looking forward to a return to routine. We did get the Christmas tree moved outside and Sophia strung popcorn, in a race against Merrick's hand to mouth helpfulness, to place on the tree. The tree hangs out in the backyard with it popcorn garland to serve both as food and shelter for the birds until spring. With the nesting birds the tree will slowly be turned into smore's fuel during the summer nights. The weather has been less than cooperative with high winds bringing low wind chills or as is the case today-rain. Partially weather and partially other inconveniences have required our initial ice fishing outing, but we are hoping to rectify that situation next week. Sophia and I did get all the gear in order and ready to go. The rain does mean that the "zamboni" has come to the back yard rink. I suspect the fresh ice will find us in the mood for an afternoon game today. Merrick finally got his shovel. The single kid shovel has been a source of quarreling for a number of weeks. With his new implement he is a shoveling fiend and borderline obsessive about it. He can easily spend an hour just pushing snow around and throughing it into the air, which generally lands on his own head. Sophia and I hit the indoor ice on Friday for some open skating and our races quickly devolved from just a mere head start to her requiring me to go to the blue line, then back to the goal line then race to the other end for the finish line--she independently discovered the lightening drill at age 5. We have also spent some time on the water slides at the YMCA and indoor activity but it was as close as I was allowed to having the kids join the Polar Bear club.