After a drama filled day on December 31st, in which Father had to rescue my beloved mare Hannah from imminent death...(another story for another post, soon to follow), we decided to go ahead with our original plan which was to bring in the evening preceding the new year by going family skating.  This is a favorite event for Mark and since we originally expected to have a girl referral from China, Momma just happened to have some wee tiny little girl skates for Marissa.  So despite the aches and pains from the day, Daddy loaded us all up in the truck to head to the arena.  The good members of the municipal council take it upon themselves to open the arena for free family skating, which fits right into this families budget.  So here are some shots of what I believe to be Marissa's first time on skates.  She seems quite natural at it and walked without any difficulty all over the arena.  On ice she needed full support but she was fearless.  What a gal.  Maybe she will be doing skating lessons while Mark does his music and soccer.  We will give it a try.

 Here they are ready to go.  Both up and on their skates while Mommy and Daddy are getting theirs on.
 This sad face is because Momma wanted a photo and she was determined to get on to the ice without delay.  Here I am yelling "Wait, wait for Mommy".
 The promise of hot chocolate was keeping them pretty happy.
Here is Daddy doing his best not to get frazzled even though he is hurting pretty bad and can hardly raise that right arm.  Why do kids always have to go back to the facilities when they are in snow suits and skates?  Murphy's law I guess.  We had a great time and I have learned that it is almost impossible to take two children who cannot stand on skates while on ice to the area and still expect to get any good photos.  I will try to capture more in the future.  We did however discover that you can buy these little "trainer" clip on things to support them on the ice that looked like they may help with keeping the kids up and Momma and Daddy from being down with bad backs.  So I am on the hunt for these little clip on gadgets before our next trip to the arena.  Is this our new family New Year's tradition?  Maybe it will be.  We did have lots of fun but Mark was asleep before we left the parking lot.  Happy New Year everyone.  Hope you had as much good old fashioned family fun as we did.