Earlier this week we pulled the children's bikes from storage. They probably could have been riding for longer, but we were expecting it to snow in November and December.
As the children returned to school after the holidays, we figured it was worth it to take the bikes down from the hooks in the garage even if they only earned the bragging rights to say they'd taken their bikes to school on clean streets in January of 2012.
It has been strange to not have the extra freezer space in the barbcue and car trunks for the post-Christmas leftovers and sale items, but I haven't been complaining. Even the fellows who bought new snowmobiles in the fall aren't really saying much as the sleds sit gathering dust in garages or they follow weather patterns and drive further down the highway to find a place with fields of the white stuff.
The storm earlier this week looked nasty and the wind was bitter, but the ground is still scantily clad with snow. The weather was bound to turn colder and the community has already begun to embrace entertainments best suited to the darkest and coldest times of year.
There have been some breaks in recent years, but I was delighted to discover the creative juices are flowing just up the highway again as the actors, director and crew of the drama club north of the gully are preparing to take the stage in the near future.
My children have once again avoided winter sports except for walking to school and the weekly trips to the skating rink with their classes. My son is one of those rare boys who has only ever skated when it was required at school and has missed many of those classes because it hasn't made sense to buy his ever expanding feet new skates every year for just a few physical education classes of free time on the ice.
They too have been bitten by the theatre bug. The elementary school has just begun learning the songs for the spring musical and my daughter is already warming up the house with the melodies shared at the top of her lungs.
My son is a little more discreet, quietly picking up his script and heading to the school where he is enjoying the practices as one of the only boys challenging himself to sing out loud as they present the first musical since he has been at the high school.
Winter is good here, inside and out.
