winter thoughts

i just entered a contest to win free tickets to a new cirque show. you had to share a favorite winter memory. i thought i would share mine since it was so fun to go back to this particular place. perhaps some of you have even experienced something like this:

I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and we had a corn field right behind our house. Every winter, when the first real cold snap came, my mom, my brother and I would stuff ourselves into our warmest layers, scoop up our old salvation army skates and trudge across the now flat, snow-covered corn field. About midway across the field, the land began to dip and out of nowhere a seemingly impromptu frozen pond would emerge. It was always bumpy and uneven, with tufts of dead corn stalks jabbing up through the surface of the ice, but it was bliss. Pretending that you were a famous ice skater, or explorer, or superhero could keep you warm for hours out there. Or you could draw funny messages or pictures in the ice with the sharp tips of your skates. But after awhile, the chill would finally settle in and you would start to feel the soreness of all the times you landed on your behind, and you would struggle awkwardly to unlace your skates, so that you could begin the journey home. And after trudging, once again, across the hard, frozen corn field, you would enter the welcoming warmth of your house and nestle up against the heater waiting for your hot chocolate - with marshmellows, please - and everything in life would seem perfect.