Winter Rec Fest: Our Way

I watched Owen, 7 years old, trying to get his snow pants on.  He was dragging them up his body, hopping from foot to foot.  I started to step in to help.  And then I remembered putting on my own snow pants the same way when I was that age.  Not necessarily the quickest or most efficient way, but it works.  I looked back over to Owen.  The snow pants were on.  He found a way.  Emma was using all of her lung capacity to blow into one of the inflatable sleds.  Did she need help?  She looked pretty determined.  We no sooner walked up to the sledding hill at Winter Rec Fest and she was coming over to us looking so disappointed.  The inflatable sled was deflating.  The sled was studied for a moment.  Another sturdier sled surfaced.  She was soon zooming down the hill on the new sled.  She found a way.  Ian, the oldest, was the most excited of all of the kids.  He claimed he was "staying until midnight" on the sledding hill.  He wasn't going home.  He didn't stay until midnight.  But he managed to hit the jump and get more air than I thought possible.  He found a way.

I didn't really want to go to Rec Fest.  My chilly office left me feeling cold from the inside out by the time I got home.  No time for the hot bath I often take to thaw out.  I put on long wool socks, envisioning us standing at the top of the sledding hill for hour after cold hour.  Not sounding fun.  We made our way to Rec Fest and the snow began to fall in pretty little flurries.  The hill was packed with excited kids and a lot of very game parents jumping on sleds as well.  There was a lighted ski/walking trail at the base of the hill.  My husband and I made our way down there through the screaming, zooming sleds.  We walked and crunched over the snow, passing torch after fiery torch along the way.  Making our way around the trail, we came back to the base of the sledding hill.  Very cool view from below.  The snow continued to fall.  The Forest Hills clubhouse was all lit up with diners and cocktailers.   My husband stepped in for a drink.  The fireworks started. We found our way.

And at the request of Mike and the kiddos, I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas was our theme song for the night.


Winter Rec Fest from Polly Scott on Vimeo.