Winter Weather Can't Slow Us Down

Now that we're going to be seeing white and freezing our extremities off for the next few months, it's time to get started with our winter activities. The one we were most looking forward to is skiing, although we've only been able to get up to the resort once since they opened about a month ago. Mark got switched to night shifts, which has made coordinating our schedules a nightmare. But we'll make it work.

Even though skiing has been tricky to make happen, there are other fun activities we've been up to lately. A couple weeks ago I took Mira sledding with my dad and sister Sara. Mira had a BLAST! We'd sit her on the front of the sled and she would giggle the whole ride down the hill.

Hitching a ride back up the hill with Auntie Sara.

Bonus: she got a really good nap afterwards.

The next winter sport we introduced her to was ice skating. I'll be honest, I wasn't so sure she was going to like this one, but clearly I don't know my own daughter very well if that's what I thought. She loved this too! It seems like anything active is something she'll enjoy, which is definitely a good thing.

Look at her cute little skates!!

We started her off with one of these cool little walker dealies that I wish they'd had for bigger people like me.

She dragged me around the rink.

After a few laps around the rink she got bored with the walker and wanted to hold our hands while we went around. She found out pretty fast that Mark is a much better skater than I am and would go fast with her, so eventually she didn't want me helping her.

And it's probably a good thing I didn't help her very much! I only fell down a couple of times but this is what my knees look like now:

Apparently skiing technique and skating technique aren't interchangeable. Both times I fell, I'd started to lose my balance so I instinctively responded the way I would if I were skiing and started to lose control: I crouched down and leaned forward. The crouching down probably wasn't too bad of an idea, but unlike skis, ice skates have toe picks. Just in case anyone was wondering, catching your toe pick and falling smack dab onto your knees on the ice is actually quite painful and I don't recommend it.

And who could forget the holidays? I'm not as stressed about the upcoming holidays as I normally feel I am, mostly because I'm excited to see Mira's reactions to getting her presents this year. We haven't talked very much about Santa - we've mentioned that someone named Santa will bring presents in the near future but that doesn't mean very much to her. And now that I think of it, Mira is not unaccustomed to receiving presents for no reason. (Last year we were walking through the jewelry section of the store and one of the salesmen gave Mira a teddy bear.) But she's old enough to get excited about receiving things so that will be fun.

It wouldn't be the holidays without a good party, and since Mark and I both missed out on our respective company parties because, surprise, we were both working our shifts, we went to an ugly Christmas sweater party at a friend's place. Apparently ugly Christmas sweater parties are all the rage now because when I went to find some ugly sweaters, there were absolutely none to be found, Christmas-themed or otherwise. Not even at the thrift stores did I find anything. So we made our own. (As a side note, going through Walmart getting supplies for our ugly sweaters and listening to all the terrible Christmas music gave me a headache and homicidal tendencies. I am so ready for that part of the holidays to be over.) Here are our creations:

As you can see, mine is definitely gaudy and just too much. It's a bit hard to see, but notice there's a bird on my shoulder.

Here's a closer look at the whole thing, if you can stand to look at it.

And here's Mark's seriously ugly sweater. All he did was pin an advent calendar to the front of his sweater and I think I have to give him the win for the most atrocious sweater.

Yep, that's pretty awful.