Growing up in the country was an adventure for my brother and me.  We always had something to keep us entertained.  There were horses and four wheelers and a chore or two that needed to get done.  But the most exciting thing was when we had a snow day.

On one particular winter day, we awoke to three feet of snow on the ground.  To us kids, that was the answer to our prayers.  The two of us patiently waited and watched the television for the morning news lady to announce that our school was closed.  Finally, we would hear it and we would jump and run, screaming for joy, to our rooms.

Once we were dressed for the elements, we ventured outside.  The cold air hit our faces and instantly chilled our noses.  We laughed and blew frosty smoke rings into the crisp air with our warm breath.  We tried building a snowman, but quickly grew bored with that.  Our innocent snowball fight ended in a fist fight, so we sat on the front porch and discussed our options.  We could go inside where it was warm and boring, or we could stay outside and enjoy the snow before it all melted away.

A quick game of rock paper scissors settled it for us.  Outside it would be!  We knew we would play in the snow all day, even if our toes were frozen.  Still sitting on the porch, we contemplated what we would do now that we had reached a decision.  After a few moments, we had both hatched a brilliant plan.

My brother gathered the lumber and I found the tools.  An hour or so had past and from our efforts came a small but stury sled.  I found a rope and my brother saddled the horse.  Soon the rope was tethered to the saddle and the sled was ready to be pulled.  We took turns, all that day.  One of us would ride the horse while the other got drug through the biggest snow drifts we could find.  Then as the sun was getting low in the sky and mom had called us in for dinner, we slowly made our way to the barn.  It took all of the energy we had left just to unsaddle the horse and hang the sled on the barn wall.

Our make shift sled, that took a short time to build has lasted almost twenty years.  It still hangs on the barn wall, but not that barn wall of long ago.  It hangs now on my brother’s barn wall waiting for his son or daughter to one day take it down and enjoy the magic it brought to us on the best snow day ever.