So, I’m continuing that variation of the theme of how un-black I am. And really, sometimes I think it’s how not grown up I am, or rather, how different.

Anyway, I was thinking about that kind of stuff last week. Last week was Thanksgiving, and it snowed a couple inches, or about a foot and a half to two feet of snow. I usually get together with friends once a week to do something, usually on Wednesday. Since it was Thanksgiving, I thought I’d take the week off, but I still called some people to keep in touch. Keisha has just had her fourth baby, and hasn’t been able to get together with us since early October. She was feeling ready to get together, so we talked about going to the Y to go swimming on Friday.

Friday came around, and I called her to finalize our trip to the Y, and I couldn’t reach her. The children and I would have gone anyway; I was really anxious to swim, since Thanksgiving fell on Thursday, as usual, and Thursday is my swimming day! (ed. note: I swim every Tuesday and Thursday morning in the 6 o’clock hour if I can help it. I’ve been doing this for months now).

Then I said, “We can go swimming or sledding.” Now, I would have rather gone swimming. Like I said, I missed Thursday, and Yanni and Xay are supposed to swim on Fridays, and they were missing their day, too. But Yanni said, “Yeah! And school is out today.” Which brought to mind a rather seize the day moment.
Ok, so we’ve got a foot or two of snow on the ground, there’s no school, so we can go to Hillside Middle School in the middle of the day, and we can sled. “Everybody get your snow stuff on! We’re going sledding!”

 “YAY!!!!!” Was the unanimous response.

Even Esteban was excited. I’m sure he doesn’t remember his sole sledding trip last year.
I do. It was the coldest day of the year, and we were outside sledding. Esteban had a cold for the rest of the winter.

But, never mind that, I made several trips to the basement hauling snow pants and extra boots, whatever else still stowed down there. The older children had already been sledding this season; I was looking for snow pants for Esteban.

And I had them, too. I have snow pants in every child’s size from 2-14, I think, plus Yanni and Xay’s new snow pants purchased either last year or the year before. And, thanks to various kind donors, I have several pairs of boots, hats and mittens, too.

Two years ago, we had a boot crisis. Everybody from Mani up had outgrown their boots, and Curtis didn’t want to replace them. “What do they need boots for?” he asked. “Make them stay inside!”

Stay inside? I get panicked even considering that. Why should perfectly healthy children stay cloistered inside for the 6 months of winter? Why, there’s the outdoors to explore. There’s sledding, snowboarding, hiking, not to mention skiing, which I’ve never done, snowmobile riding (I’d like to do this), iceskating, snowball fights, snow collecting–any number of activities to do outside in the winter.

That was not the answer I wanted. So, I waited until late February, and asked if I could go buy boots on sale. I had heard they were practically giving them away at Target. Curtis relented, and I found some really cheap boots for Yanni and Mani at Target. The Rutherfords brought by a pair of boots that Xay could wear. Then we were back in business.

Thankfully, last year, the children could still wear those boots. Then, I got an influx of boots from generous people with little girls, so Mani and Joy are set for quite some time, I think. Miriam happened to have a pair of boots for Xay this year; he’s grown a couple shoe sizes in the last few months.

So Xay dressed like a fireman and was outside playing while I fit everybody else in their snow gear. Never mind that Xay was sick Thanksgiving Day, and the day before. I have to admit that I was excited about the whole thing, too, even though I haven’t had snow pants since I was 12. I usually wear a pair of water proof warmup pants over my clothes.

Esteban gets to wear the dragon mittens this year. Mittens is an area I have room for improvement. Mani and Joy must wear home knit, cute, but not waterproof mittens. Esteban is wearing 10year-old store bought dragon mittens. They are water proof, and have little faces, so the children have loved them since I bought them for Yanni at the age of 3.

Xay is wearing one of several pairs donated by Rutherfords, and I broke down a few years ago and ordered Yanni some good winter gloves from Lands End Overstocks. None of her snow gear matches, but it is good warm stuff.

So, we’re off to the Middle School right down the street. If it were warmer, we’d walk, but since it’s winter, we drive. I try to park on the side of the road, and the car slides into the ditch. I calmly back up; I learned how to drive in Kalamazoo–I’ve been driving into snow banks since 1984. I get us back on the road, and decide to park at a dead end street half a block from the hill.

Esteban is asleep by the time we get there, and Joy is not so gently trying to wake him up. The wind does a good job of that. I carry Esteban down the street and all the way to the top of the hill in the deep snow. Mani and Xay are running along behind us, and Yanni and Joy bring up the rear.

I am at the top of the hill panting, grateful that this is the day after Thanksgiving, and waiting for Yanni to get there with the sleds. She gets halfway up the hill and starts loudly complaining about being stuck again with the slowest member of the family. Joy is valiantly trying to scale the hill. It is no small hill, but thankfully it’s not slippery. When it’s slippery, Joy can’t climb it by herself.

Yanni and Joy finally make it, and they pull out the two muddy saucer sleds we have. Xay is trying to clip his new bigger feet into his snowboard, and he keeps running into Yanni, now patiently trying to work her way down the hill with Mani. The snow is packed around the sled, and it is taking all her strength to push the sled down the hill with her hands.

I try to go down with Esteban and Joy, but we aren’t going anywhere. I can’t move much what with trying to hold them both on. Joy decided she’d rather stay at the top and make snow balls. I try to go with Etty and decide that this is no fun at all. I’m not going anywhere, and Esteban’s mittens keep falling off.
I get 1/4 of the way down the hill and decide, I’m going home!

Meanwhile, Xay’s snowboard cuts right through the snow, and he slides down the hill, where he lands in a heap at the base of the hill. I’m a little concerned he might be hurt, but he’s not crying out.

Somehow, Xay makes it back up the hill and is ready to go again. I’m determined in my mission to go back home, and am making my way down the hill with Esteban, when Xay slides past us on the snowboard!
He has decided to sit down and ride the snowboard like a sled. That looks worth a try, and Xay, Esteban and I sled down the hill on the snowboard. About halfway down, Etty and I start sliding off the side of the board, and Xay falls off and the board finishes the trip alone.

I have snow up my pants legs, my butt is cold, and I’m ready to go home!
Xay is so sweet. He offers me the board to go down all by myself.
I am not phased. I keep heading home!

I tell the children they can play for a little while, but Esteban and I are going to wait in the car. We walk all the way down the hill, down the street and to the car. We take the car and drive around the block to turn around and park right in front of the hill. Then, I get out and call the children.

Etty is crying because I left him in the car to call the kids. He cheers up, and we wait for the rest of the children to make it down the hill.

Our whole excursion took about 1/2 an hour. By Monday, all the snow is melted. We’re all glad that we tried to sled.

I take that back about being un-black. The whole experience, from the hand-me-down, pseudo matching snow gear to the two sleds to split among six people–screams black!

It’s Sunday now. As I look out my window, I see snow flurries gently, silently falling. I know we’ll probably try to sled on this snow before it melts. It may be here to stay until sometime in May. Maybe it will be gone by Thursday. Either way, we’ll hit the hill with our two sleds and one snowboard a few more times before winter’s end. It is something to do in the snow, after all.