Christmas Day in Ukraine

Edna and Joshua in the park.

Today we decided to keep the boys home from school since it was Christmas and snowing heavily (tomorrow is their last school day before the holiday break) . We made it a snow day and took a sled to the park. Joshua's friend, Yaroslav, also joined us (he stayed home from school too because he said he had a “headache”). We basically had the park to ourselves as we trudged through the fresh powder searching out hills suitable for sledding. We played in the snow and took turns on the sled until Joshua became hypothermic and Edna lost all feeling in her toes.

Joshua sledding down the hill while Dominic and I watched and Yaroslav chased after him.

Edna was surprised when she put out her hand and a bird landed on it. A real Mr. Bluebird Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah kind of moment.

Dominic and I braved the cold a little longer to make a few runs down the little hill by our apartment building. Some of the neighborhood kids had set their sleds aside in favor of going sans sled down the ice covered slope. The kids convinced me to take a few slides with them on the treacherously slippery ice that last week's freezing rain had produced. I figured that since the hospital was less than 100 meters away and well within crawling distance, a few trips down the hill could be fun. I was right. Who could have imagined that gravity and some frozen precipitation would be so entertaining? I'm the only dad I've seen who actually plays with his children so the other kids had fun having a dad along for the slide.