Winter break

Just what were the Powers That Be smoking and/drinking when they decided that children should have a week off from school in February? Even when we lived in that other state, the weather was lousy in February. Yes, there are some people who get to visit some warm climate for the week, but most of us stay home. With our chidren, in the house, for an entire week.

Yes, I am exaggerating, but it still seems like a ridiculous idea to me.

Aidan and I hung around the house on Monday. He slept in until almost 8 am - unusual for him - and then we just lazed around, watching television and playing games. We did shovel the driveway and Aidan was going to play outside, but came in after just fifteen minutes because he was cold. A peek at the thermometer revealed that it was just 14 degrees out so he had a good point.

Tuesday morning we loaded him up on fresh reading material from the library and on Tuesday afternoon, I took Aidan and his friend Ryan on a Cub Scout bowling outing. Bowling alleys are naturally loud and when you add fifteen or so shrill little boy voices to the mix, the decibel level is downright lethal. But the boys had a good time and I have regained most of my hearing.

We went out to lunch on Wednesday, then headed over to Barnes and Noble so Aidan could spend a gift card that he received at Christmas. He browsed and browsed, and then browsed some more. He finally chose a book, a Lego set and spent the last two dollars on a cookie from the cafe.

Thursday was a treat for both of us. Aidan had so much fun at Beaver Lake Nature Center's summer day camp that I signed him up for one day of winter camp. And did he ever have fun! They made snow caves, he helped cut ice from the lake, they went on a 2.2 mile snowshoe hike, they used the ice cut from the lake to make ice cream, he spilled hot chocolate on his hat and backpack, lost one glove, went through two pairs of socks and got to pet a red-tail hawk. His cheeks were rosy when I picked him up and he was so excited to tell me all that they had done.

We had plans yesterday to drive over to North Syracuse and have lunch with James, then go to our favorite bakery and visit an Italian grocery that we'd never visited before, but the weather was nasty. It snowed hard all day and the wind was blowing, so all we ended up doing was going out for Aidan's scheduled haircut and then sliding back home. The salon was quiet when we arrived; anyone who lived outside the village canceled their appointments. We spent the rest of the day eating popcorn and watching a movie, so we still had fun.

After we dug out the driveway this morning, we went to North Syracuse to do what we planned to do yesterday. First we went to Geddes Bakery, where we bought a loaf of crusty bread and a bakery treat for each of us (always baklava for me!). A fresh tomato pie came out of the oven as we were leaving and Aidan stopped to sniff and drool a little. The nice young counterperson earned his undying affection when she wrapped up a slice for him to try! Then we went to Vince's Gourmet Imports, where we happily wandered the aisles perusing the Italian specialties. We bought some of this, some of that, and got fresh made sandwiches to go. Thanks to Vince's, risotto allo zafferano is in our very near future.

All in all, not a bad week for February, but certainly no break from winter.