Since moving back to sunny South Texas, we haven’t had much in the way of cold weather.  The winter temperatures here are mild, the wind-chill factor unimpressive.  While temperatures like this are certainly far more comfortable than the frigid air of a Beijing winter, Gloria and I were reminiscing happily about the fun we used to have playing in the ice and snow.  Remembering it was such fun that I decided to post it here, on my seldom-used blog.

We lived next to a river in China.  The river was pretty gross normally, but when it snowed it looked beautiful.

We built this snowman right after moving to China, during our first week there.  It was the first time any of us Texas-born kids had seen snow!  (Except for Peter, who went on a trip to Maine with Mommy and Daddy when he was a toddler.)

The picture actually doesn’t show all of the kids who built the snowman.  This was only some of us.  Snowman building is a team effort!  (Especially if you want the snowman to be taller than you, because that bottom ball cannot be moved by only one person.)

Snow-fort building is a team effort, too.  Unfortunately, only one person can get in it at a time — unless you want to get really serious about dragging snow from all over the place to the building site.  This was in 2012.

What do you do when you’ve heard about how sledding is so much fun and want to try it, but lack a snow-covered slope and a sled?  Why, you make use of an old metal dustpan and the ice-covered parking lot, of course!

All snow must be played in, of course, but powder snow doesn’t pack well (unless you have some slush handy, as Elisabeth and I figured out…).  What could you do with it then?

My guess is that you wouldn’t have thought of what the boys did …neither did I… but their solution took the form of a miniature golf course.

And finally, sometimes in the winter we would get to go chair skating on a frozen lake in Houhai.

You could ice skate too, but usually only Gloria did that.  Chairs were more fun anyway.

There are lots more winter memories, but I’ll leave you with these.  Which is your favorite?