When winter hits as hard as it does in Chicago, you really have to do one thing. Well, drink and one other thing. You've got to get out into it and make it fun. So when the first big snow of the winter hit last week, Erica, our friend Megan, and I all headed out for Cricket Hill to do some sledding.

I've tried to explain to people from outside the Chicago just what kind of "hills" we're stuck using in this flat, flat land to do our sledding. I think the picture above says it all. But we still managed to wear ourselves out and get the snowy part of the winter off to a good start: