Sky splashing pink and orange around our shadows casting ahead of our ski tips as we crest a hill on our final loop. Steam rises off of our backs; my brother is growing an icicle from his ski mask. Our pace laughs at my outing last week. We slowed to watch a hawk with a puffed white belly perch itself on a limb. Skritching the snow with our poles we race down the last modest hill.

It is as if no years have passed since we found our rhythm in the tracks traced in the woods; at first trailing behind our grandfather with our grandmother in the rear, parents scattered between and later racing far ahead of them. After the Christmas wrapping paper was discarded and the lefse platter empty, it was the skiing that stayed with us. Some years I grumbled to myself that downhill skiing was more exciting and why couldn't we do that? Other years I complained that my clothes were not right, I was cold, tired, not wanting to go out again. And yet I did -- partly because my grandfather was nearly as stubborn as I was, and partly because I didn't want to miss out on anything (what if this one time there was hot chocolate and a fire in the shelter?). But usually there was not, and my hands and feet were cold, but I had been down another hill and made another loop, or two.

Today when the whines of "I don't want to go skiing!" and the wimpers of "I want to stay home and write stories!" echoed throughout the house, my brother and I needed no encouragement to get them going. We recognized the grumbling (but graciously Rob said nothing) and made it out the door. Rob taught them to "shuffle, shuffle, glide" and to skateboard on one ski. When I finished my solo loop, we traded roles and worked on going up hill sideways with the boys (or "bananas gorilla as Rob calls it). Dietrich came up with his own skill: making his own tracks in the powder (or "groomer" as he calls it). By the time we were sipping hot cocoa (Elliott in the car, Dietrich in a snowbank) everyone was smiles. And just 10 minutes after bedtime prayers, all is quiet in their room