Surviving the Cold 2014

Now, we know we have family in Connecticut, Colorado, Massachusetts, and Alaska who might laugh at Kentucky's idea of cold. And yes, it is true that of our 13 total snow days over the winter, probably two of them would have qualified as snow days elsewhere.  But seriously, it was a very cold and long winter here!  Trust us.  Fortunately, we were able to keep ourselves occupied.

The University of Kentucky gymnastics team always gives us a reason to look forward to January. Every year since we have been in Lexington we have gone to a couple of meets, but the first home meet is Excite Night, and that is something you don't want to miss.  We in fact have started a tradition of grabbing dinner with the Abrahams and then spending the evening critiquing the new squad.  We are happy to report that the team looked impressive even though the budget for Excite Night festivities appeared to have been slashed.

After two years of tagging along with her sister to dance class, Reese would no longer be denied her own spot on the dance floor.  In fact, her strong personality persevered and she managed to undermine her parent's wonderful plan for only one night of dance class.  Instead of submitting to this master plan where she would have class and then Callie would have class on the same night, Reese had her own idea of what needed to happen.

And what needed to happen, as far as Reese was concerned, is that she needed to have Miss Lauren, the same teacher who has so gently guided Callie to dance success over the past two and a half years. All other teachers were sub-par to Miss Lauren, and therefore we schlepped our way to the dance studio twice a week. However, Callie took advantage of this situation and wiggled her way into becoming Miss Lauren's assistant teacher in Reese's class. Fortunately, Reese didn't mind sharing.

As we said, there were lots of snow days this winter.  And as it so happened, every single one happened to fall on a Monday, Wednesday, or Friday, which meant they were days of the week John was on duty.  A Tuesday/Thursday teaching schedule sounded so nice at first.  But he and the girls did have some fun outside, at least during those precious moments they were able to shake off their California heritage and embrace the snow like a good New Englander should.

Although their endeavors into the great outdoors did not always last long on those cold, snowy days, Callie and Reese managed to make the most of their time outside.  Snow angels were a must, of course, and Callie made sure Reese knew exactly how to do it right.  And at times they even found the time to help their dad shovel the driveway a little bit.

There was enough snow at times that we were able to make a small (very small) sledding hill in our backyard.  The girls had a great time on the slope, a ride that lasted all of 2 seconds tops.  This trip also involved very little effort on their part even as it served as a great workout for John.  He had to shovel the snow from the driveway, make it into the pile, lift the girls onto the sled at the top of the mound, and then push them down.  However, it did the trick and got them thirsty for bigger hills.

Fortunately for us, a bigger hill is right around the corner.  A very popular sledding spot is the hill at the Shriner's hospital, and we joined quite a few other folks for an afternoon of fun.  Callie loved every minute of it and wanted to go as fast as possible on the little saucer sleds we have.  However, she had no interest in going by herself, which made it a tight fit on the sleds.

Reese, on the other hand, was surprisingly more apprehensive about the whole experience.  And as you can see from her nose in this picture, she was also a tad cold, which did not help out her mood.  She went for a couple of rides and then was ready to be done.  Still, we were happy to know that the girls both got in some good sledding before the winter was done.

All good snow days need to be capped with a cup of hot chocolate, of course.  This was probably their favorite part of the whole experience, especially since we added an abundance of mini-marshmallows to their drinks.  It made the cold winter day that much better.

Unfortunately the winter brought many weekends where Sarah had to work.  This meant John often had the girls to himself on Saturday or Sunday mornings.  We knew that this routine might be becoming an issue when John introduced the girls to sprinkle-covered heart doughnuts from Dunkin Donuts.  This type of behavior was something that the girls could expect from their mom, but when dad got in on the act something seemed a bit out of whack.

Another unexpected surprise for February was a visit from Andy Downing, SJ, one of John's college roommates.  Andy made the trek down from Chicago for a brief visit before he headed off to Italy where he is going to be teaching at the Gregorian University in Rome.  It was great to catch up with him and the girls, Reese in particular, loved having him around.  Andy has quite a few nieces and nephews, so he had no problem handling the craziness, including a night of mini-golf.

We will never know, but his coping mechanism could have been the knowledge that once the girls were in bed John would be pouring out some Woodford Reserve to ease the burdens of the day.  Hopefully we will one day be able to visit Andy in Italy, where he can take us around and show us all the sights.  And if all has gone well, by that point he should be fluent in Italian and can teach the girls how to count to ten in yet another language.

As you can imagine, bookstores are always a great place to hang out on cold days.  Lucky for us, Morris Book Shop is just a mile away, and it has some very cool places to sit and read.  Here Reese is sitting in one of the stacked cubes they have outfitted with pillows for all of your reading needs.  The only thing we wish for is an adult-sized version of these cubes.

Although this picture may not seem to show it, we did manage to stay sane over the course of the long cold winter we had this year. And when all was said and done, it was probably because we had these two goofballs to entertain us. They are truly funnier than we will ever let them know, and we are very lucky to be their parents.