First slide of winter, 2009

I love taking advantage of little bits of time, especially during this hectic pre-Christmas whirl.

Saturday morning in the fresh snow and cold the little red-haired girl and I headed with the wooden sled to the Elbe riverbank near where we used to live when we first came to Hamburg.

We were only out there for an hour or so, but every time we do a childhood tradition like this I savour it, thinking: this might be the last.  She’s growing up so fast, how much longer will she feel like going out with her old man for a bit of fun in the snow?

Translation of the end:

How you supposed to steer?

You gotta lean!

But I did!

Oh…

Ah…

A precious couple of hours in the snow

I forgot to post this!

Damn.  I wrote this in mid-February.  I should clean out the draft file more often.

Between work and travel and home, the homeside has been coming up short lately.

So when I had a day and a half off this past weekend, I made the most of my time with the little red-haired girl.  Sounds trite, but true: every time I look at her she seems a little taller, her face a little fuller.

But though she’s right on the cusp, there’s still a lot of kid left in her.  Sunday morning we hauled the sled out of the basement, strapped it to her bike – the one that still looks too crappy to steal, I hope – and headed to the Elbe riverbank hoping there’d be enough snow for a bit of sliding.

The few flakes that had fallen over the past couple of days weren’t much, but it was just enough to turn the slope into a slippery mash of mud, slush and screaming kids.

Can this really be only eight weeks ago?  With the warmth of Spring the last few days, we’ve already had the frisbee and football out for a few throws.  I hope she’ll never grow out of that, because I know I won’t.