Slice #12: Collect the Most Happiness

Today it was really nice to come home, after a fulfilling day at work and spend time with a full family dinner, cleaning in the kitchen, doing some laundry and then spending time having a family game night. Today we played Tokaido, a game we have had for a while, and one that everyone seems to enjoy a lot. The write up and video at the link does the job of explaining the game WAY better than I could in writing. If you are interested in learning more about the game just go there.

On our journey the family including my wife, sister, brother-in-law and nephew (4.5 years old) has enjoyed learning a new game together while taking turns having the most enjoyable journey along the road known as Tokaido. This connected Kyoto and Edo (Modern Tokyo) and was a many day journey. Along the way we saw beautiful panoramas, soaked in natural hot baths, filled our packs with trinkets.

In the end, the goal of the game is to collect the most happiness and remember life is about the journey and not the destination. I will try not to be a sore loser, and hold a grudge at my nephew for winning.

Slice of Sledding

As I entered the door my nephews were climbing over my sister full of energy. For a disclaimer, we have a 'Full House' living situation. She looked like she's had a Day, but still wanted to share the joy of sledding with her boys with me. Spending time with my nephews, especially sometimes mundane moments has become a source of joy in my life.

I began to bundle up since day light was burning and I knew getting home at 5:23 after some of the worst driving conditions of the season left little time for fun. It was probably 5:50 before we even got out the door because wrangling children into snow suits involves also finding missing gloves. Bundled up we left the warmth and safety of home.

Luckily there is a nice sledding hill very close by. We made our way over to Horseshoe Park with a green saucer and a red sitting up sled for my youngest nephew. A testament to the worst driving conditions of the season, we kissed a curb and began fish tailing in the parking lot of the park. She quickly regained control of the van but was shaken.

We looked at the main descent and considered factors like the grade, distance before obstacles at the bottom, and decided the regular sledding hill was wholly inappropriate for children. We made a trek across to our own 'bunny hill' incline where the boys could enjoy sledding. My oldest nephew rocking the green saucer always needed a push to get started but began making his way a lot further. We left our mark on the unspoiled snow.

We were done quickly, perhaps within 15 minutes the cold, wind and wet from rolling in the snow shattered our childhood enchantment with sledding like an icicle falling onto concrete. But once more, for the rush of feeling 'young' I went down the 'way to scary for the kids' hill on the bright green saucer. Covered in fresh powder and a smile on my face, I was happy to call it.