Christmas morning. It’s a white Christmas, a bit cloudy but it has stopped snowing, leaving a good cover over the landscape. But what was more important was the good covering of presents that Santa had left under the Christmas tree. The children plowed through the stack in quick order. Corwin kept asking “aren’t there any more presents?” as we went through the various caches of presents. Charles got so enthused that he just kept opening presents even after all of his were done, so Grandma got some pre-opened presents.
After a brisk morning of present opening it was time for sledding. There is now a large drainage pond just a block or so from the house, which promised some good sledding for small children within walking distance. Corwin and I set out and after collecting a Jacob we went over to sled. The sledding was good. Another local family had already arrived and beat down some good runs. Mom, Charles and Jacob’s sister Jesse showed up a little later. Dad got a lot of exercise running down the slope to retrieve children and sleds. Hauling up two children in sleds at the same time was almost too much. After sledding, it was time to pile in the car and head off to Grandma’s, about three hours away. It wasn’t a good trip for Corwin because all of the McDonalds were closed for Christmas. But we arrived without excessive trauma in time for a nice Christmas dinner. We opened some more presents, played with them for a while and then watched Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. As Jesse said, “this is the best day in the whole world!”.