Sorry for the long delay in posting....I've probably lost a bunch of you, but I hope we can get back on track. So much happened around the holidays....

In response to the sledding comment....I, also, remember long sledding trains through Chesterbrook Woods. It seemed like there would be 20 sleds chained together - toes hooked into the front of the one behind. Do kids do this any more? With the recent snow here in SW VA, it was the adults I know that went "coasting."

But as kids we'd hook up so many sleds that the last ones would get whipped around the corners and not always make the turn. I know that I was dumped more than once....and had a pretty good crash with two sleds colliding side to side. There were 2 of us laying on one sled. I was on top and steering. The second sled was 3 people sitting. They were half way down the hill before I took off, but we still caught up and to keep us from smashing into each other, the guy controlling the other sled gave us a gentle push sideways. The road must have been solid ice because we veered off and hit a pile of packed snow and flipped into a shoveled driveway. That was one bloody night....when faces hit pavement it makes a real mess!! All survived!!

That may not sound like fun, but it is those kinds of events by which life is made memorable.

My brother told me that I was the only person he knew who could laugh and cry at the same time....I don't do it as much now....but I did that night. Do kids still do that? Do they still have the simple fun of putting on 6 layers of clothes til you can only walk like you're wearing a full body cast? Pulling on your boots and having to have your mother put her hands way up your sleeves to pull down your sweater under the coats? And ending up at someones house for hot chocolate with little marshmallows? And does anybody still go door to door carolling at Christmas?

Our great sledding escapades seemed to be after dark and it was safe and really fun!!!

I also remember building an igloo in a friend's driveway....it was big enough that I think 3 of us could get in and play.

They were the best winters - those of childhood.....the deepest snows, marathon Monopoly games, and gangs of friends playing all day 'cause school was out. There was one time about 1966 or 67 when we had snow after snow and were out of school for 11 days I think. Maybe that's when I learned to love hunkering down inside, playing cards and reading a book by the fire. I don't' get bored being in for days....there is so much to keep me happy inside....like blogs and Facebook, but also great books, old movies, and the cocoa has graduated to a glass of red wine or an Irish coffee. And once in a while....taking a dip in the hot tub with a bottle of tequila.

Some adults (at least one or two I know) appreciate their toys more than kids who want everything electronic....I love my PC, cell phone and MP3, but even more I love the fluid words of Ken Follett, Jose Cuervo and good friends.

I doubt McLean was any different in the love of childhood, great snows and warm fires, but what makes it special is that is was our childhood.

Do you have a favorite place you went sledding? Let us know. Chesterbrook Woods was full of hills....and the only way out from my house was up one of three hills....you could take the shorter steep route, or the long and more gradual slope - and mostly that depended on whether you were going up or down, and how much of a running start you needed if you were going up. My Dad always had a 4-wheel drive of come kind - and there weren't that many around then like there are today - and he was always pulling someone out of a ditch or a snow bank.

The good old days can be the good new days if we let them - there is little reason to let a number such as age stop us from making more memories. Yes there are memories to be made with children and grandchildren, but remember, if you're out there with them - those experiences will one day be their memories and they'll be warmed inside like by a cup of cocoa when they recollect the days of their youth.