Winter Days

     There's something about winter days when it's cold and snowy outside, but cozy and fun inside that gives me all the nostalgic feels.
    Our winter this year has been a little colder than they had been the for the past few years, but we've been keeping the furnace humming, and pulling out various fun projects to fill our days. Games are also getting a lot more use during this season.
    We didn't have board games in my early childhood, but we still played games. A favorite was called, "Ding-dong Dingly".
    One person was blindfolded and would say a little rhyme in German, each of the other players would take turns responding, at which point the blindfolded person would give them a number telling them how many steps they were allowed to take. And then the game began.
    At five and six years old it was exhilarating trying to save some of your allotted steps in order to evade the blindfolded person who was trying to find you. 
    One evening it was Mom's turn to be blind folded and she found my brothers and me without a problem, but had a harder time finding Dad, who had chosen to take his allotted steps up the wall at the end of the hallway and was propped up as high as he could while Mom searched.
    We children were having such a hard time containing our giggles. When she finally gave up, removed her blindfold, and saw where he was the entire house rang with laughter.
    That was the end of that game that evening, and it was time for bedtime stories and being tucked in.
    Given the option of weeding the garden after supper during summer months, or playing games and having bedtime stories during the winter, it really is no surprise that winter was my favorite season as long as I can remember.