Midnight sledding.

It started snowing at our house in Charlotte, NC, yesterday at about 6pm. We were expecting a few flurries and nothing more. Even flurries are pretty to a girl from Alabama (me), so I enjoyed watching them from the warmth of our home, and eventually, I realized we were getting more snow than had been forecast.

Our daughter had a friend sleeping over, but they had gone to another friend’s house a few miles away in another friend’s car. At about 11:30pm, my daughter texted me, “Can you come pick us up?” I responded, “On our way.” My husband and I got into his Jeep, and once we were on the road, we realized how fortunate we are to have a Jeep with 4-wheel-drive, so even driving on slippery roads wasn’t difficult. (Don’t make fun, Northerners. The city did not prepare the roads in advance, it appeared. I’ve read about schools closing up north because it was too hot to go to school at 85 degrees. I went to school in 100 degree temperatures growing up on the Gulf Coast, and we didn’t have A/C in schools then…seriously.) We saw a few accidents along the way. One car had slid into the back of another. Another car had slid into a light pole. But fortunately, we were fine.

We delivered our daughter and her friend safely back to our house, and as soon as we got home, we all ran inside to put on snow gear, so we could go sledding! Yes, it was midnight, but that just made it more fun! After putting on warm clothes, coats, gloves, and hats for the snow, we all met in the garage and grabbed sleds. Fortunately, our daughter gets a new sled from Santa every Christmas, so we have a collection from which to choose! To purchase the fastest sleds we have, click here.

I’m sure our neighbors thought we were crazy, but we didn’t care. They might have even been disturbed by our laughter, but we didn’t care. I could hear one neighbor shoveling snow while we were sledding (yes, shoveling in the middle of the night), and I just felt sorry for him. He was missing out. We just wanted to have some fun, and we did!

My husband and I started the fun by taking a sled run down the big hill on our street. The snow wasn’t packed, so it wasn’t as fast as it usually is, but it was still fun…and funny. Then our daughter and her friend started sledding down another smaller, but steep, hill next to the lake. They laughed, and we laughed. Between sled runs, we threw snow balls and took photos. My husband was wearing a Santa hat for warmth, which made the pictures even more festive.

We had lots of fun. We laughed. We sledded. But mostly, we made midnight sledding memories. We don’t have snow every winter in Charlotte, but when we do, we try to take advantage of the opportunity. Over the years, we have made some great memories with great friends. In fact, a friend who now lives in Boston saw my new photos on Instagram and commented, “Brings back fun memories.” And that made me smile. So yes, we made more fun memories last night too. Our daughter is 18 (so hard to believe) and will be heading off to college in Alabama in August. She won’t be here in Charlotte during January and February anymore, so we likely won’t get to sled with her next winter. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to go midnight sledding last night.

And today, we’ll do a little more sledding. It’s going to melt pretty quickly, so we will have to take advantage of it early. We’ll make a couple of runs down the big hill before going over to the adjacent golf course. I won’t stay long…one or two quick passes down the hill…but we will make good memories. And we will laugh. Our daughter will likely stay a little longer, and then everything will melt, and we will go back to business as usual.

But years from now, if our daughter has her own child(ren), I hope she will tell stories about midnight sledding with us. Last night, she said of me and my husband, “Y’all are both just five years old at heart. Most parents are just getting old.” She probably doesn’t even remember saying it, but I remember it; I took it as a high compliment.

I hope it snows again soon, so we can go midnight sledding again!