Snow! Snow! Snow!

It is bitterly, horribly, absolutely, abominably cold here. Record-breaking low temps are expected for the next few days. Luckily Rachel is off crutches -- has been for a few weeks now -- so at least we don't have THAT to contend with.

We at least got some snow out of the deal. Monday was Presidents' Day, which Drew and Rachel had off (I had to work), and Tuesday we got more than 5 inches of snow, so Pew and school were closed (again, I had to work). The cool thing about Tuesday, though, was that we got to take Rachel sledding in the morning. We had a blast -- Drew and Rachel went first, to the hill behind McKinley, and then I came after I finished breakfast and got into all my clothes, including Drew's ski pants, and headed for the hill. Rachel has only one sled, but she and I went down several times together. The hill was AWESOME -- lots of kids, so it was kind of hazardous, but a lot of fun. Drew and I had to reprimand Rachel for not listening to us when we told her to get out of the way of other kids when she insisted on telling Ivy, who was there, too, "just one more thing!" and to emphasize the point of how much a sled colliding with Rachel could hurt her, Drew hit her leg really hard, which made Rachel upset. Point made, he went home, and Rachel and I took another run or two before we headed home, too.

On the way home, I told Rachel about how Grandpa used to take Mommy and Tia Daniella sledding at a really cool hill in New Jersey (remember, Dad? Near that highway on the way to New York?) and then we'd go out for hot chocolate afterward.

"I bet it wasn't as good as YOUR hot chocolate," Rachel said loyally. "We're so lucky to have you!"
"What makes you say that?" I replied.

"Because you can bake, like, EVERYTHING!" she exclaimed.

I made hot chocolate from scratch and then we all had a family talk about how Rachel really has to listen to us when we tell her to do something -- she can't do things on her own time -- and her big blue eyes filled with tears and her little face looked so miserable, but we needed to make the point. She and Drew cuddled for a little bit, and then she was fine. We all drank our hot chocolate, I went upstairs to shower, then headed to work.