Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Winter has finally arrived in Utah. Perhaps finally is not the right word. Finally is a word that has the sound of Joyous expectation ie Christmas is finally here! I should change it to say Winter has arrived in Utah, damn it! (sorry Mom...and Emily).

We had a big snow storm this weekend, and temps dropped to the 30's and 20's. The low on Wednesday is 14. Last night I went to my car to deliver dinner to my friend that had surgery, and my back door wouldn't open. Why you ask? It was frozen shut. Yep, FROZEN SHUT! Come on people! We live in Utah, not Alaska! It's not like we can see Russia from our back yards!

I was tempted to force the door open, but suddenly I was reminded of when I lived in Connecticut (another state in the Arctic Tundra) and the front door to my car was frozen shut. I forced it open (because I was late to work as usual). Then when I went to close it, it would not latch. I had forced the lock open and it was still frozen! So I had to make the 40 minute drive to work, holding the door shut with my left hand (crying the whole time) and driving with my right hand. I should probably mention that my car was a stick shift. Yeah, hard to drive that with one hand. It was TERRIBLE. So after this painful memory, I decided to just walk around to the other side of the car and open the passenger side door. It worked! Yay! Crisis averted!

Instead of being crabby about the cold, I am trying to think of the good things about winter. Christmas is the most obvious. Not only does it bring Joy and reflection on Jesus' birth...it also brings the opportunity to decorate our yards! Woo Hoo! On one side of our walkway we have a penguin playground surrounded by snowflake lights. On the other side we have a snowman conga line (no they are not really doing the conga, but wouldn't that be cool!). Delicious goodies are also a plus for winter. I LOVE the hot cocoa at 7-11. This probably sounds white trashy, but it is delicious! They have flavor shots that you can add, plus mini marshmallows and creamers! I usually just add cinnamon and the mini marshmallows. On a good day they have chocolate marshmallows! MMMMMMMMMMMM!

Winter also brings cute sweaters (perfect for hiding the pudge from a fore mentioned goodies) and fuzzy hats. Mittens and Christmas lights at the Temple....sing alongs, parties with friends, and vacation days from work. Things are looking up! I can see the bright side of winter. This should keep me happy for a while....or at least until the next time I have to shovel the back deck so the dogs will go potty (which unfortunately will be tomorrow).