FROST

 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukah or Kwanzaa!  I cooked and cooked and baked and baked for days to feed my children and their children.  We opened presents and then watched movies.  This year we watched Pirates of the Caribbean and then, lo and behold, the first Pirates of The Caribbean was on TV!  After all that, we had food, fun, good company and after spending all day with us, it appears Johnny Depp is the newest member of the family!  LOL!!!

PIRATES!!!

 

This morning, while drinking coffee on the back porch, I remembered that book, All I ever needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten or something like that.  I smiled thinking about what I learned in Minnesota Winters ...

I learned:

1. Don't eat yellow snow (that one was obvious).
   
2. Stop for strangers who are stuck.  Always help push when somebody's stuck because one day, it might be you who's stuck in the snow!
   
3. Don't ever put your tongue on the pump.  It'll stick!
   
4. If the snow is heavy and no one can get it out, check on your neighbors to make sure they have food and they have heat.  If they need either, give them some of your's.
   
5. As soon as you put on all your clothes and go outside in the cold, you are going to suddenly remember that you have to use the bathroom and you will have to go back in and take everything off again!
   
6. If you start to skid on ice, turn into the spin.  Imagine for a minute how quickly solutions would be found if we always faced our troubles by reflex!
   
7. If you are doing anything outside for any length of time, cover you face and create a moisture barrier between yourself and the elements.  The space between the scarf or woolens and your face works as an extra shield to the sub zero temperatures AND it creates a place for air to be warmed before it goes into your lungs.  I learned young how to create protective barriers to the elements but I only learned recently how to create boundaries with people!
   
8. Wear a hat.  You lose a lot of heat through the top of your head!
   
9. Wear sunglasses.  Snow and sunlight are like sunlight to the tenth power!  Protect your eyes!
   
10. Wear boots or good footwear.  Indian moccasins were popular when I was a teenager but totally NOT practical when a young man asked me to go for a romantic walk in the snow!  OUCH!
    
11. SUB ZERO is SUB ZERO ... There is no detectable difference between 3 below zero and 30 below zero.  It's COLD!!!  My uncles used to spend HOURS arguing about who had the coldest temperature at their house ... never mind the fact that they all lived within 20 minutes of one another ... What else is there to do in Minnesota in the winter?  LOL ...
    
12. I have seen really bad frost-bite.  I have never seen anyone lose a finger or a toe, but I have seen ears and fingers and toes turn black like a bruise from frost-bite and it was pretty painful for the sufferer.  It is why, even though I live in the South, I always carry a blanket in the trunk.  In the north, we always carried a can, a candle to burn in the can, granola bars, water, blankets and extra clothes and a pair of boots just in case we got stranded somewhere.
    
13. My Mom always made sure there was plenty of food in the pantry in the winter just in case a storm came.  It taught me to plan ahead.
    
14. We watched the weather and respected the changes because not being mindful could get us in trouble pretty quick.  There were many stories of people who walked to the barn and lost their way during a snowstorm.  If the winter was a bad one, farmers would string a rope from the back door to the barn so people could always find their way.  I learned that it paid to mark our paths.
    
15. We learned a sense of community.  We watched out for ourselves and our neighbors too because it was us against the Great White North!

But what lessons are our children learning?  With global warming and the weather being what it is, there have already been three times this winter when it was colder in South Carolina than it was in Minnesota and none of us had snow for Christmas!!!

 

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know

Where neighbors were neighbors

Because no one wanted to be snuck in the snow ...

 

No matter where you are or what you are doing this holiday season, I wish you WARMTH and good tidings!