Whoosh - into a New Year

Sledding at a snowy Capital Hills Golf Course was the highlight of the day.  Terrifying!  Followed by a "snack" in the restaurant there - an almost equally terrifying portion of chicken wings for the Girl (and she ate it all up, too).

Last minute cancellation of the party we planned on going to tonight means we'll be ringing in the New Year by ourselves this year.  Ah well, all the quicker to get to bed once we've dutifully (yawn) watched the Times Square Ball drop.

Happy New Year to all who are already in it - not long now for us, too.  Best wishes, everyone!

Now, who wants to be first over the fiscal cliff...? 

Skating in a winter wonderland

The Girl skated in another show today, at the imposing Albany Academies.  Blimey, the hours it involves, for a mere blink-and-you've-missed-it ninety second performance.  Though in fact she got to stand on the ice quite a bit longer as they struggled to get her music to play...  She stood firm in her place, like a true professional.

She did very well, especially taking into account that she'd had next to no sleep the night before (friend's birthday party) and no breakfast or lunch to speak of.  She spent the rest of the day recovering, floppily.

Meanwhile, the Boy was off with his buddy, sledding.  The Man and I also looked for some snow action and took ourselves up to Thacher Park, where it was perishing cold, with a stiff wind whipping snow crystals in our faces.  We stayed up there longer than a one-minute skating programme, but not much.

There's a chance of more snow tomorrow.  Maybe we're going to have that doozy of a winter after all?

Addressing the web

So, that experiment yesterday...

Strangely enough, not everyone in the family greeted the opportunity to stage a historical recreation of the 1980s with cries of enthusiasm.  Sounded more like cries of agony and rage, to be honest.  One of our number spent a good portion of the day sequestered in a closet with a puzzle book, in protest.

On the other hand:

• In the morning, while the Man and Girl were at the ice-rink, I had the chance to play several rounds of Monopoly Millionaire Deal with my son - quite an entertaining card game, especially if (like him) you are an aspiring member of the 1%.
• The Man and kids did some more work together on the snow fort.
• When our friends the Exiles came round in the afternoon no-one drifted off and played on the computer.  There was a lot more fort-building instead.

However, good company, fun and fresh air notwithstanding, by dinnertime the internet-free naysayers were...still naysaying.  We discussed how the day had gone and at least half the family were not entirely, or even at all, positive about the experience.  Interestingly, the kids could imagine going away and staying somewhere without internet, but found it too frustrating to spend a whole day without it at home.

Generally speaking, everyone in our house spends too much time on screens - me included.  I don't know if the children believe me when I tell them they won't look back on their childhoods and wish they had spent more time watching YouTube or playing Minecraft, but I'm pretty sure I'm right.  No, we're not going to give up on the internet altogether (the '80s wasn't such an exciting era, let's face it), but we've all agreed to reduce our hours a bit.  We'll see how that goes.

More snow today:

Escaping the web

We attempted a radical experiment at home today, a step back in time to a world without the internet! 

No video games, no just-checking-my-email, no looking-it-up-on-wikipedia... 

Yikes!  How did that go down?

I shall tell you all about it, tomorrow.  But for now, I shall get back to reading a book.

Snow day!

Once the Boy had got over the uselessness of having a snow day during the holidays ("Because what's the point if you don't get to miss any school?") he decided he was willing to embrace the 8 inch blanket of whiteness that fell overnight and through the day.

He and others of us joined the kids from next door on our-neighbour-opposite's excellent sledding slope.  Woo-hoo!

Later there was snow fort-building in the backyard - a project of ambitious scale, which may take a few days to complete. 

It looks like it's going to stay cold, so we should be able to enjoy the winter wonderland for a while now.

Sushi X-ing Day

The Girl's present to her Dad this Christmas was a set of six nicely illustrated vouchers inviting him to have lunch out with her - at his own expense, of course. 

Though he may have momentarily put his head on one side and thought "hang on a minute...", really the Man is always glad of any reason to spend enjoyable time with his daughter, so he was very pleased with his gift.

He redeemed one of the vouchers today, and the pair of them went back to Sushi X in Latham. Meanwhile, not wanting to miss out entirely, the Boy and I hitched a ride with them and went to the patriotically themed 76 Diner right next door for our own exclusive lunch out.

Tonight:  our first real snow storm for this winter (and really since the winter before last).  Wa-hey! The storm warning runs through until 7pm tomorrow and includes some heavy snowfall, so chances are there will be something deep and crisp and even to show for it all. 

White-ish Christmas

White enough, anyway - about half an inch of snow fell overnight, so we had a white dusting at least, which the Man and I made the most of on a short hike at Five Rivers.

Christmas was fun. The tree, the gifts, the games. Skyping with family. A stonking dinner (including home made nut roast and cranberry sauce, roasted brussels and sweet potatoes). Home-made crackers (we had to supply our own "bangs"). A family movie (Hugo) to round off the night.

We started early and now it's (yawn) very late.

We hope everyone had a lovely Christmas - thanks to all who added to the enjoyment of ours.