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Living in the lovely climate here in Frozen Nebraska (I think we're up to 13" this morning and it's still coming down strong) we have to prepare for several MONTHS worth of indoor-only activity during the winter. Normally I'd just bundle them up and kick them outside, but there are days when the windchill means they can't be out more than ten or fifteen minutes without risking frostbite to any exposed skin. Those are the day when we have to struggle to keep them occupied. We're from the southeast and didn't adjust well - our first winter was TOUGH (and an especially rough one too, with highs averaging in the negative 20-40's!). We finally bought a house with a HUGE finished basement. The boys' bedroom is down there as well as the laundry room and we still had space left over for a playground. Okay, so there are no slides or swings, but they have a basketball goal and air hockey table... No holds barred down there on rain (or snow) days - they can play as if they're outside because there's nothing to get broken. (Except the occassional hole in plaster that can be repaired and repainted.) On those long ago days when we didn't have the basement wonderland, I would wear myself out playing all kinds of silly games from the hokey pokey to crawling around on the floor pretending we were cats (or some other animal). It didn't always work as well as a soccer game, but it came close!
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I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.
--Douglas Adams
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