The Besser gang went skiing yesterday. We layered ourselves with smartwool, northface, lululemon, underarmor, craft, helly hansen, hot chillys and rei; we packed lip balm, two sets of keys, snacks, water, wallets, sun block, cds for the car, an iphone for pictures, and a ski harness for Quinn; we loaded up 5 sets of skis, poles, boots, hats, helmets, goggles, mittens, neck warmers, and jackets. The older boys and I skied a handful of fabulous runs; Quinn got his first taste of skiing with Grant behind him holding the reigns. The physical effort of gearing up and skiing with kids is like nothing else. The exhilaration of flying down the mountain on skis is like nothing else!
I have been receiving holiday cards and thinking about how much the kids we know are changing. My boys seem noticeably older to me as well. Last week, Cole was in his first play, with lines to memorize and songs to remember. He surprised us this week with a proud confession that he likes a girl at school and has been talking about her all week. He seems to have an insatiable appetite for chatting about girls and redirects many conversations back to himself and his new love interest. It's interesting how that happens. One month ago it was Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon and the Yankees, this month it's the 4th grade girls' starting line-up, and Cole's daily diary of gestures, smiles and he said-she said. Carson life seems very staid by comparison, his love for vinyl toys and origami and skiing completely, and thankfully, uncontroversial. He had a class holiday party at a skating rink yesterday and we were both thrilled to be skating and drinking hot chocolate outdoors in December. Though always the last in the boy order, Quinn is probably changing the most, shedding all his baby layers like a heavy winter coat in spring and standing a staggering 47 inches tall. He fought Grant yesterday for the second half of his sandwich. While he still loves his blanket, he has a man-size appetite and size 1 1/2 shoe.
