Toboggans and Crazy Carpets

Sometimes you have a moment where you see your life from another's perspective. I had one of those moments when we took the kids out sliding the other day. Mom said, "What would a person in India say if they saw us out here playing in the snow?"

We live in Canada. We swim and sunbathe in the summer. We grow gardens, cut our lawns, and wear bare feet all summer long.

Then it snows.

And we do all sorts of things in the snow. We ski, snowmobile, snowshoe, snowboard, and of course, we toboggan. We sit on some kind of slippery vehicle: a wooden sled, or a thin sheet of plastic called a crazy carpet, then slide down a hill. A plastic bag will work in a pinch.

That's it. That's tobogganing! It's good exercise, and it's fun. It can make a 65-year-old feel like a child again.

Little ones sometimes need a bit of coercion to get dressed for the elements...

Grown-ups are helpful for carrying sleds...

...and kids up the hill!

The type of sled plus the child's body weight will elicit different velocities...

and babies and toddlers should travel with a grown-up!

Wiping out is part of the fun, especially when you have a friend or cousin to share it with!

After a healthy dose of giggles, get off the trail so the next slider doesn't run you over! 

Babies don't find wipe-outs as fun as mommies do...

Who can slide down a snowy hill without laughing their head off?

Margot was content to hang out in my arms, listening to me talk about the wonders of snow, and her proud Canadian heritage...

Yes, we're a strange bunch, we Northern folk. We make do with what the skies give us, and for the next three-to-four months, what the skies will give us is white stuff. We plow it off our driveways, trudge through it, and put snow tires on our cars to drive to work. We listen to the radio on REALLY snowy days, and a chorus of "HOORAYS" can almost be heard through the countryside when the announcer tells us the buses have been cancelled. We use any excuse to drink hot chocolate (with Bailey's for the grownups), throw snowballs, build snowmen (and occasionally women), put snow down each others' backs, and wear snowpants and parkas and tuques without shame.

And sometimes, just 'cause it's fun, we sit on things and slide down hills.