Quintessential...

My little guys went to a birthday party today and the invitation said to dress him warm, and bring skating gear. I wasn't quite sure about this plan since it has been pretty cold the last while; around -20. Today though, it warmed up a bit (to -18) and the wind died down, so we bundled him up and headed out. It turns out that these people live a bit out of town and have a pond in their backyard which is frozen all the way through. So I took Allan off to the backyard where they have a large tent set up with plywood on the ground and a woodstove inside to keep it nice and warm; there I put on his skates and helmet. He and the other boys were skating around on the pond, passing pucks, and losing them in the bullrushes; the dogs were running around, onto the ice; the chimney from the tent was sending up smoke... it was such a Norman Rockwell image of winter... it was really awesome.