My Sledding Adventure’s Twist

While I was tearing down my Christmas decorations and setting aside the generic winter ones, I had a memory pop into my head.  It’s quite the story, so I decided I would share it with all of you that stumbled onto this post.  Let me start off by saying, to this day, I still don’t know what happened to it.

With that out of the way, let’s jump into my story….

It was a fine day.  The snow was perfect.  The ideal sledding snow, that is.  And, my brother and I were getting geared up to trek out into the wondrous white world that called our names.  With assistance from our mother, we bound out of the house and into a large snow bank beside the house.  There we were.  Two black blobs just as happy as could be.  But we wanted more.  More, more, more!

Going back into the house, we called forth mother and asked if she would join us on our sledding adventure.  Sure enough, she accepted and was soon wearing her winter gear as well.

While she was dressing, my brother and I journeyed into the garage to find the sleds.  We had several, so we had to get them all because what kid, in their right mind, wasn’t to remember to pull the sled back up the hill.  We decided things would be so much easier if we had multiple sleds to pick from.

Emerging from the garage, we put on our biggest grins and declared a race.  First one to the top of the hill would be the first one down.

Now, before you think this hill was right there, let me explain it was a good seven-minute hike to get to our sledding spot.  I mean, we had the small little rolls, but we wanted to go down the BIG hill.

Panting by the time we got there, my brother and I decided we needed to test out the speed of the sleds.  We each drew up a sled and readied ourselves for the climatic start.  When mom yelled, “Go!” we took off.

Our sleds barreled down the hill.  Faster, faster, faster!  That’s when I hit the bump.  My sled made an immediate veer to the right, which was going to… CLASH ME INTO MY BROTHER?!

Thankfully, be bailed sled before the crash happened.

Needless to say, the sledding lane I went down was ruined and “off limits” for the remainder of our playtime.  Despite being down a designated lane, we still had a blast.  Although, the best part of the sledding was not the actual sledding.  No, no.  It got much better.

While at the top of the hill, I had made a comment about seeing something move.  Seconds later, there was a mouse on my foot.

Yes.  A mouse.  A real, live mouse.

It’s little beady eyes stared into my for a split second.  Before I could even squirm or kick it away, the little bugger decided to… run up my pant leg.  By that point in time, I was screaming, flailing, rolling, and laughing.  Screaming because I just had a mouse run up my snow-pants.  Flailing because there was a mouse in my clothes.  Rolling because… well, I thought it was an effective way to lose the mouse.  And laughing because it was, without a doubt, the funniest thing that could happen while sledding.

So there you have it.  My sledding adventure with a… twist.  Now, like I told you at the beginning, I still have no idea where the mouse went.  None of us saw it leave, not even my mom who was watching the event as it unfolded.  And I didn’t find a squished little critter in my pants either.  Needless to say, it definitely brought a little excitement to my day.  To this day, whenever I think of a mouse, I think of that moment in time.  Okay, I think of a few others, but those mouse stories are for another time (and for when I know my mother isn’t going to be reading this).

Out of curiosity, have any of you encountered a mouse in such a bizarre fashion?  Share your story if you have (as I would love to know that I’m not the only one that had a mouse run up my pants).

See that hill in the distance? That's the sledding spot.

Deck the Halls

It has come to my attention that I haven’t posted an adequate number of pictures for the holiday season to give you a feel as to how I’ve been decorating.  I’ve been raving how I love the holidays, but there isn’t any hard proof, yet!

So here’s your proof.  These are all photographs I took this Christmas.  I’ve also linked a few fellow bloggers’ posts about the holidays, too.

The blogs:  ComfySpace, ozimages, chaoscookiesandlaundry, mspedagogy, and  ilovegalway.

Can you name this tree?

Backyard with a light coating of snow.

Just some of the decorations around the house.

Our special tree. Notice the missing lights?

One of the decorations on the main tree.

Another decoration on the tree. If you look closely, you can see it says, "Daughter's First Christmas."

Precious Moment figurine decoration.

All I Got for Christmas Was…

White Collar season two DVD.

YES! I got exactly what I wanted for Christmas!

Neal Caffrey.  Well, White Collar season two.

Remember how I said I really wanted White Collar for my birthday?  Well, I found out today that they lied to me about everything!  My brother knew I wanted the DVD more than anything, so, being the stinker that he is, he decided to hold off on giving it to me.  He said, “Oh, she can wait five more days!”

See what I have to live with!  Making me suffer like that.  How rude of him!  I mean, I know five days isn’t that long, but those five days could have been spent watching the second season!  That’s five days I could have spent swooning over the brilliant acting and charming ways of Matthew Bomer (the actor that plays Neal Caffrey).

Needless to say, I got what I wanted and then some.  Christmas is perfect.  The family was laughing and really enjoying themselves.  Oh, and, according to them, the look on my face was priceless when I opened the DVD.  Granted, I’m sure the best look my face wore today was a slightly annoyed cocked brow when my mother let me in on my brother’s crafty (and cruel) little secret.

I hope everyone else is getting what they want.  But, most importantly, I hope it’s a fun-filled day of laughter and joy.  After all, Christmas isn’t about the gifts we get, it’s about the true gift of having family, friends, and happiness.

The Power of Music and Silver Bells

It’s that time of year when radio stations start playing holiday music.  Being a bit of a holiday lover, I like to gather my favorite songs and listen to them regularly from December 1st to Christmas Day.

The type of music on this playlist varies far and wide.  Some of the music is in English while other songs are half in Spanish like the song “Feliz Navidad.”  As of recently, I’ve really started to take a liking to instrumental pieces by bands like Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  The way the bells ring in these type of songs are simply beautiful!  The mood you can pick up from the dips in vigor and speed only further enhance the overall power of the song.

Care to create with with me?  Try to envision a five-foot six-inch woman standing on the edge of a chair trying to reach the top of her curtains so she can drape garland over them.  Then, imagine the garland refusing to cooperate and dropping to the floor below.  In a semi-flustered mood, she flails her arms to swoop down and grab the troublesome greenery.  Refusing to call it quits, she remounts the chair and straddles the couch.  Doing a half-split, she continues to fight with the holiday decoration.  Just as she’s about to call it quits, the music seems to empower her.  It edges her on, which helps her reach just a little farther.  A little more.  Just a little more.  YES!  Finally!  It’s on!

This is exactly what happened to me about a week ago when I was putting up my decorations.  The song that was playing was “Carol of the Bells” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

It was quite a dramatic scene, wasn’t it?  I hope you now have a better understanding of my passion for the holiday season.