Memories Solo Completed

Location: Merthyr Tydfil, Wales
Date: December 25, 2020

Waking up on what would be Christmas morning for other children, Adlai rolled over onto her right side as the dim light of the welsh sky trickled through her bedroom window. The shadow's of snow flakes beginning to cover the walls.

With a yawn and a groan she rubbed her eyes and sat up to see if her sisters were still asleep. And indeed they were. Dorothy's left arm and leg had fallen off of her top bunk which would soon follow the rest of her body without a doubt while Johanna snored and had kicked her blankets off in the middle of the night again. Though it wasn't particularly cold in the house at the moment, Adlai still understand how or why Johanna did such things.

Hearing the rustling of foot steps and the thud of cupboards downstairs Adlai decided now would be the best time to get out of bed. With a long awkward stretch Adlai stood from her mattress and sheets and then put on a pair of fuzzy, warm winter socks, as she wasn't a fan of wearing slippers or a fan having cold feet. As she left her and her sisters room she lazily rapped a scarf around her head and made her way downstairs.

The staircase creaked and moaned beneath her feet with every step she took, practically announcing to all that were awake that she was present. Finally reaching the bottom of the stairs Adlai peeked into the kitchen/dining room area of her home where her father sat drinking his morning coffee while simultaneously reading the newspaper and listening to the T.V which played the news in the background. Surprisingly Adlai's mother didn't seem to be up yet. Which only lead her to think that her father had something planned.
"Good morning," She said as she stumbled into the kitchen.
Her father, Jón lowered the news paper to just relieve his eyes, "Good morning." He replied.
"Is mama still asleep?"
"Yes, she is." While saying this Jón began to fold the news paper back to its original form before placing it on the table. "I plan to try to give her a day off today." He said catching Adlai's attention. "A day off? But mama doesn't have work today."
Jón chuckled at Adlai's comment, "Not in that way. What I mean is a day off from all of us." he explained. "Oh, I see. Yes, we are a lot of work."
"Especially me." Adlai laughed at her father. He was quite the hand full sometimes, but so were her and her sisters as they were quite mischievous.

"But, since your mom is getting a day off that means I'm taking you and your sisters out to breakfast! So go get your sisters, say your prayers, and get ready!" Adlai gave her father a nod before rushing back up the stairs and awakening her sisters, who were not pleasant about it.
Before the four of them left they all said goodbye to their mother and then filed into the car, which was a 1970's chevrolet nova, the car their father had been driving since he was a young man...not that he wasn't a young man any more.

Nonetheless, breakfast had come and gone and there was still a whole day to spend before going home. And since it was Christmas most everything was closed, that is except for the park. However, the playground equipment was all frozen over or full of snow, how would they play on it?
Well that is an easy question to answer because they weren't going to play on the playground instead they were going to slid. Not too far from the playground a hill that during the spring, summer, and early autumn people would roll down. Of course now in the dead of winter said hill was covered in snow. Thus, Jón took out his spare tire and lugged it up the hill with his daughters in toe.

Once they got to the top he laid the tire down and Johanna climbed into his lap, as she wasn't old enough to go down on her own just yet. After reaching the count of three Dorothy and Adlai shoved their father and little sister down the hill. Jón nervously held onto Johanna knowing full well that if he let her go she'd be flying through the air within seconds as they were going down at an accelerated speed down the snowy hill. As they did Johana let out shrives of joy.

Not a moment later did they reach the bottom and Jón used his heavy booted feet to bring them to a stop. The two of them then lugged the tire back up the hill and Dorothy took her turn, with Johana and Aldai pushing her down the hill. As Dorothy slid down she didn't make a sound, it was only when she reached the bottom did she let out a loud "WOO!" of excitement.
Dorothy then rolled the tire back up the hill and Adlai finally took her turn.

Taking a seat in the center of the tire she could feel the cold snow beneath her and her eyes crossed slightly as she looked down the steep hill. Not having a moment to protest her sisters pushed Adlai down the hill, it was a rather bumpy ride, a lot more bumpy then expected but it wasn't scary in fact it felt as though she was flying. Like Dorothy Adlai didn't make a sound until she reached the bottom of the hill and used her booted feet the bring herself to a slow stop.
Getting out of the tire, Adlai turned to look at her family who stood at the top of the hill. She gave them a gloved thumbs up as she yelled "YEAH!" and all of them began to clap and cheer.

This went on for the next few hours before their legs had grown sore from taking the tire back up the hill. Having tuckered themselves out they all filed themselves back into the car as Jón put the spare tire back into the truck before getting into the drivers seat and taking them home where their mother waited for them.