Sledding!!!

So last weekend, there was an epic snowfall ... which just happened to coincide with our nephews (Marley on the left, Dylan below right) visiting from Philadelphia, so we got to go sledding with them. Awesome!!! It dropped two feet of snow on DC, some 16 inches in Philadelphia and around 10 inches in New York. This was the first real snowfall this year, and since my nephews were visiting, I was particularly excited about the snow. A few years ago, Aviva had surprised me after work with a nighttime sledding expedition, so we already had a sled. And when we told my 2 1/2 year old nephew Dylan on Saturday that we were going to go sledding tomorrow, he was ecstatic.

We got the early jump on sledding that night, around 11, when AJ, Alana, Allie and Zeke (our fabulous neighbors ... they are fantastic, and add an incredible new dimension to our lives here) came up from AJ & Alanas, walked in and demanded, in their heavily inebriated state, that we go sledding right now. So a stiff whiskey later, I found myself sliding backwards down the semi-public road in front of our building, desperately but futilely trying to steer myself away from the cars and the curbs ... I was not the only one with steering issues, and overall, despite the bruised knees and the cold, it was super fun. The rest of the evening, consisting of Balderdash and drinking, was also a blast, and as usual with our neighbors, we were up until around 0130 before we even knew it.

When we rose on Sunday, there was a beautiful, white blanket of snow covering everything. I love it when you first see snow before it has turned brown or been salted or moved into piles, it makes everything see so calm and beautiful. After a slow morning, we got everyone ready and ventured outside, finding several places in the complex in which to make sled runs. Although it was not Dylans first time sledding, I think it was the first time he remembered doing it (Rachel said she took him last year) and he loved it. Everyone had a blast sliding down hills with him and dragging him around on the snow, and I have to say I just loved the sledding by myself, as did Marley, who also enjoyed pelting us all with snowballs. We spent about an hour rampaging around int he snow, and when we got back inside I was exhausted. It is tiring playing in the snow, particularly dragging little and not so little kids around. Still, absolutely fantastic time and overall a wonderful weekend.