So, I told him about our outdoor arenas where kids can skate and play hockey. In fact, I had my girls out just the other week for a skate.

They haven't done much skating in their lives... I could probably count the times on one hand. Living in Virginia, U.S.A and Germany, not too many chances really. But I can remember skating and playing hockey on the outdoor rinks almost every day when I was a kid... The outdoor rinks provide one of those primieval sounds, that whenever you hear it - it takes you immediately back to what you remember about growing up in Northern Ontario. I used to walk to the rink, and the second I stepped out of my front door I could hear it... the cutting of the ice with the skate blades, the crack of the stick slapping the puck and the thud of the puck hitting the boards. It's nice that we're back now, and I can take the girls to share the same experiences that I had growing up.

There are so many outdoor rinks in the Ottawa area, and you can pick up used skates fairly cheap at places like 'Play it Again Sports' making it a very economical winter activity.

In case you're not familiar with the term, check out wiki's definition for tobogganing. Basically, you find a hill you can walk up, take a piece of plastic - or the old school wooden toboggans, sit on them and race down the hill. Some people also refer to it as sledding...but at the same time, some people say sledding when they mean snowmobiling...

Here's an edit of the girls toboganning in North Bay at Christmas time.

There are hills all over the place in Ottawa, and pretty much everywhere in Canada... and it's another cheap and easy fun winter thing to do...

What else? Well, there's cross country skiing, downhill skiing, snowshoeing, sledding or snowmobiling, ice fishing, hockey, ringette, curling - there's no shortage of ways to stay busy.

With winter taking up a decent chunk of the year - Dec-Mar, it's better to get along with winter than to fight it!