In the desert, you never get SNOW DAYS!

OK, in Chicago, you don't get snow days either. That's why I like living here with all these boughie, spoiled Washingtonians.

Several weeks ago, we bought a little $5 plastic disc for sledding. So when all of Washington pussed out yesterday and canceled school (at least according to our new President), we promised The Dormouse we'd take her sledding.

It was really kind of them to build this school on a hill so that there would be plenty of good sledding hills.

The first time The Dormouse went down the big hill by herself. She wasn't quite prepared for the experience and staying upright proved to be difficult. She ended up using her face as a breaking mechanism and dragged it across the ice for about twenty feet. After than she would only go with one of us. And let me tell you... that tiny round disc wasn't big enough for either of our asses.

I couldn't quite manage to get my legs under me and in the disc, so I went with the "hold your legs out and let the snow take the shoes right off your feet" approach.

I love this picture.

But I love THIS picture even more!

When The Dormouse finally got brave enough to go down the hill on her own again, she slid so far I thought we'd have to go get the car to retrieve her. It's a good thing there was a fence back there.

The long walk back.

Of course, you get a little cold when you're outside sledding, so I recommend hot chocolate... and of course an outdoor hot tub never hurts to top off the event. If you ask me "flinty, Chicago toughness" is overrated when you can take a day off work and sit outside with your family in hundred degree bubbles.