Saturday has arrived once again and we are in the midst of the holiday season. Although it won’t technically be winter for a few more weeks, cold weather is beginning to arrive.

This week’s SNGF challenge from Randy Seaver on Genea-Musings is to tell about our favorite winter activity when we were growing up.

I lived in Passaic, New Jersey until I was almost 12. The neighborhood streets and yards were quite flat, so there wasn’t any sledding happening. However, many of the kids on my street, including me, got together and built snowmen.

This is probably about how our neighborhood snowmen looked, but I do remember my mother occasionally giving me a carrot for his nose!

When we moved to Wayne, my little brother and I were both old enough to tackle a winter sport – still on flat terrain, though, or should I say frozen water.

The Preakness Valley Golf Course had a couple of small ponds.

When the water froze over enough, Mom took us to the golf course and we all went ice skating – even Mom.

We did improve enough over time to be able to circle around the pond without falling. The biggest challenge I remember was avoiding crashing into other skaters.

I don’t think any of us would ever have been an Olympic threat, but we sure had a lot of fun.

I wish I had a picture or two of all of us skating, but I don’t think Mom ever brought a camera with her.

Thanks, Randy, for this week’s challenge.:)