Trying Out a New Tradition

Around Christmastime, David purchased a very expensive Amercan Traders toboggan - it's 8 feet in length and is beautifully made.  When he told me what the price was I almost choked, but when it came I saw that it was made of wood and looked to be one of those toboggans that would last for generations.  Seriously, it does look that way.  David's idea was to start a family tradition.  One that included a day of sledding and then sipping hot chocolate.

Being a city kid, I have remarkable memories of sledding with my brother and friends at a nearby River Park.  Okay so maybe it wasn't the largest hill that we could have played on and an 8 foot toboggan would probably be waaaay too big to use, but still - I have those happy childhood memories.

Apparently David didn't have those types of happy childhood memories.  He says that his dad would drive them to the hill, let them do their thing, and then come back to pick them up.  Somehow it isn't a surprise to me that his parents would be that way, but not everyone can have the young-at-heart parents that I seemed to have.  Actually, my aunts and uncles are all pretty much the same and I'm sure that my cousins have the same crazy memories of their parents going down the hill on their sleds.  Seriously, my side of the family is pretty fun.

So David, in his quest to be a better parent, decided that we would have wonderful family memories on this toboggan.  Somehow he forgot to look for a hill to sled down ahead of time and we spent an hour in the car driving around Waukegan road with the boys complaining and David swearing up and down that there was a hill somewhere.  We ended up going to some woods nearby and it wasn't a total loss.  I have to give David credit for trying to be more hands on than his parents were with him and an hour in the car driving around and finally ending up at a forest preserve less than 10 minutes away was worth it.

The boys had a wonderful time and since the toboggan was so large, both of them could lay on it and look up at the sky.  Yes, it's hokey but it was nice.