Hot Cocoa on a Winter's Day

Winter brought hours of fun playing outside when growing up in the country. It never mattered how cold it got. It never mattered how high the snow banks grew or how wild the wind howled. We'd be out there dressed in snowsuits and scarves, wool hats and mittens and boots made more for the season than for fashion. Some days we'd go sliding or tobogganing. Other times we'd just roll down the hills or piles of snow. We'd often make tunnels and snow forts. The forts were supplied with lots of snowballs in case it needed defending.

Skating down at the creek-day or night-was always fun. Sometimes we'd wear our skates. Other times we'd put them on once we got there. I don't remember spending much time shoveling it off. I think the wind was a big help or maybe skating through some snow here and there didn't bother us. Either did having to jump over creek grass sticking out from the ice because if you didn't jump over it, you'd most likely get your skates caught in it causing you to fall. Some days we'd go on an adventure skating as far as we could go up the creek. There were places where we'd have to trudge through snow banks to get to the next span of ice but it never stopped us. On we'd go-all winter long.

And some days-after spending hours outside-we'd go to our grandmother's house for real, homemade hot chocolate. Of course packets of a prepared mix with tiny, little marshmallows weren't available back then. And even if they had been, she never would have bought them. Rather, she slowly boiled milk on the stove while adding unsweetened cocoa, sugar, and a bit of vanilla. How we'd linger at her kitchen table-drinking our hot cocoa and laughing and talking about our adventures outside on a winter's day in the country.