Page 105 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
“Yep. Today. After Mom’s funeral, I took Rowen to a carousel and we rode it for hours. And after Ben died, we drove to an amusement park and spent the day on roller coasters.”
“Okay. Like what?” Jess asked.
“How about sledding?”
“Sledding!” Rowen shrieked.
I started laughing. Sledding it was.
An hour later, we were bundled up and having a blast, the sadness from earlier all but gone.
“Can you go with me this time, Mommy?” Rowen asked.
“Yeah!” I said.
We were sledding in the foothills of the mountains behind the farmhouse.
The hill Jess had found us wasn’t too big, but for Roe and her purple plastic sled, it was just right. She was bundled up into so many layers she could barely waddle her way up this hill as it was. So far, Jess had carried her sled up the hill and ridden down with her while I’d stood at the bottom and taken pictures.
Now it was my turn.
Roe and I trudged up the hill, hand in hand. At the top, she promptly settled her little bum in the sled as I maneuvered behind her and stretched my legs around her sides.
“Ready?” I asked.
“Yay! Let’s go!” She cheered and started rocking her body, trying to inch the sled over the edge.
I planted my gloved hand in the snow and gave us a heave.
We flew down the hill. The fluffy snow flew up and blasted us in our faces. Roe bounced in the air whenever we hit a bump. As we sped past Jess at the bottom, I put out my feet and slowed us down. Then I grabbed Roe and toppled us sideways, laughing and tickling her as we rolled around in the snow.
Breathless, I lay on my back and looked up into the blue, sunny sky.
Winter in Montana was wondrous. Cold, but majestic. Everything sparkled like the whole world was covered in glitter. And it was bright, almost blinding.
I’d worried that winters would be cold and depressing, that for the better half of the year, we’d be stuck inside wearing wool socks and huddling under blankets. Not that it wasn’t cold. It was. But the sunshine made it seem warmer than it was, and as long as it wasn’t a blizzard, Rowen and I could spend plenty of time outside this winter enjoying the crisp air.
“You alive?” Jess asked, standing over me to shade my face.
“Yep. How are you?”
“I’m good.” He smiled.
I smiled back before turning to Roe on the ground beside me. “Let’s go again.”
When my alarm went off at six o’clock, Jess rolled away from me and buried his face in the pillows.
“Wake up,” I ordered, kissing the space between his shoulder blades.
“Georgia, you don’t need my help getting the prime rib in the oven.” He yawned.
“It doesn’t need to go in for another hour. But we need to get up so we can wake Roe and open presents.”
“What? No. She can come wake us up,” he said into the pillow.
“Jess, this is our tradition.”
“New tradition. We sleep in on Christmas.”
