Ouch ...or... the fine art of face-planting

I managed to give my kids the kind of Christmas morning I wanted to. Yes, I know this is the 24th.

This is my first Christmas "on my own" in 16 years, and I celebrated it one day early with my sons so that my ex-wife could have the "real" date.

Christmas has always been very important to her. It might be important to me, but I don't know because it's always been about reining her in before she destroyed us financially. I always loved her generosity and kind spirit, but then I hated having to figure out how to pay for everything. But this time it was sort of finding out what was "my way" of celebrating Christmas.

In the end I went very minimal - one set of Christmas lights on a house plant. For comparison, she has 2 trees decorated top to bottom, every inch of her new house trimmed, and so on... If you want a complete dichotomy of styles, there it is. Somewhere, half way between us, would be a normal person's Christmas. :-)

I had 5 presents for each of my sons to open, but no gift over a hundred dollars this year. And in the end, the gifts they most loved were a cheap little board game, a sweater, two stuffed dogs (that I knew they would love the minute I saw them in the store), and a weird little radio-controlled buggy my neighbour bought off the back of a truck. The 2 most expensive items still sit unopened - and that's not unusual. They ripped open some presents and smiled, that's Christmas morning to me.

After opening presents, and playing a few games, we packed up and dressed up. I grabbed the last gift I needed to deliver, and found some long underwear. The boys put on their ski pants, we loaded up the sleds, and went for breakfast at Burger Baron. Well, brunch. Well, a breakfast sandwich and a Eggnog shake. Yes, all three of us had that.

Now, if you're wondering why I entitled this blog, "Ouch", you'll find out soon enough.

After breakfast, and a few jokes about whether or not it was wise to give my eldest a milkshake just before walking uphill, we went to Mt. Pleasant to toboggan. It was a great day. A little windy, but near zero degrees, beautiful blue sky. So pretty I took a picture. We went up and down the hill, had some fun. But eventually my youngest said it was time to go. We compromised, one more slide downhill, then back to the top, then over to the side of the hill where the car was parked. That's when things got... a little more dangerous.

On the way in, we had seen a ramp. A ramp doesn't quite describe it correctly though. A hard mound of snow, 3 feet high, at a 80 degree angle. Just enough that it wasn't a vertical wall. My neck hurts and my eyes squint remembering it. Now on the way in, my youngest had kind-of sledded over a corner of it, and it looked like fun, so on the way out, my eldest and myself had to try it with a "sled train". At the top of the hill I sat on my sled, he sat behind me on his sled, and we put the two sleds together. We started downhill. We picked up speed. A little faster than I expected since this was a lower hill, but you know, gravity works just as well on a little hill as on a big one. We were going fast enough that when we hit the ramp (or devil's catapult as I call it now), we launched. But not a nice launch. Remember this was an 80 degree angle. I flipped in the air. I landed on my head and my face, twisting my neck at an angle unlike any I remember having had before. CRUNCH. I couldn't get up. I was in pain. I was scared as hell that I may never walk again. It was pretty bad. I forced myself to get up. It was so painful I swore out loud, the F word, loud, even with kids around, that's how painful it was. But I had to check on my son. He was hurting, but fortunately not as bad as I was.

My youngest, of course, was laughing. He had some pictures, none of my in the air unfortunately. Some others, though... I unbent my glasses. I was surprised when he told me I was bleeding. We limped back to the car, and on the way someone asked me (finally) if I was ok. I lied and said I was.

After a brief rest in the car, we left and went my my friend's house to deliver the last gift. There the boys played and had fun until the middle of the afternoon when I had to take them over to their mother's.

So, that was the good part of the day.

Yes, I hurt. Yes, I once again sprained my finger that I sprained in June and had just started to be able to use without pain a month ago. I can eat food if it isn't too tough. I can move my neck if I absolutely had to. But it was a glorious, legendary day. I loved it.