Sunday at the skating rink

If you're going to live in a region where snow covers the ground in winter for more months than leaves cover the trees in summer... where even when the sun shines brightly the temperatures can't rise above single digits... you better learn to make the best of it.

And so Sunday afternoon, our family - that's right, all four of us - laced up our skates and headed to the local hockey rink.

For most of the time, we were the only ones on the ice. Apparently not everyone in our god-forsaken neck of the tundra is embracing this frigid January weather. Seriously, the single digit temperatures didn't seem too bad. Bundled up and moving around, with very little wind, I really wasn't cold.

A little while after recording this video, I borrowed Jeff's hockey stick for a little one-on-one action with AJ. And all I can say is "Wow!" He beat me. And I wasn't letting him win. It's amazing how much he's improved this year. I blamed it on having to use Jeff's hockey stick, which shoots left. If I had a stick that shot right, I'd have done just fine. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Though on my priority list of hockey gear I need, shin guards rank far above a hockey stick. I wiped out just once, tripping over AJ when he went down. My right leg landed just wrong on his skate blade. Ouch!

Bumps and bruises aside, this was still one of the days I'll forever treasure. The kind of day that makes me so thankful for my family and our good health. I have a feeling I'll look back at this video in years to come and miss the days when our family bonded in such crazy ways.

As we loaded the kids into the car afterward and buckled them into their seats, I told AJ that skating was probably my favorite part of the day. (At bedtime, we often reflect on what was our favorite thing we did that day.) AJ grinned and nodded and said it was his favorite thing too. Then he asked, "but Mom, could we go to Florida some day?"