Winter, Where Art Thou?

Glorious warmth! Today it got up to +8 F, and Little Bear and I thoroughly enjoyed getting outside. My mom picked us up so that we could join her and my youngest sister for daily Mass, and after his nap the munchkin and I went back outside to run around on the driveway and check the mail. I wish my camera wasn't such a wimp with winter weather; I can't take it outside to try to get a photo of Little Bear's huge grin as he plays in the snow, because the battery drains in a snap.

We keep telling ourselves that it'll be cold soon enough, but it's already the middle of January and we still haven't had a real cold snap. It's been wonderful, but weird. Yes, we've seen -35 F or so several times, but nothing much colder, and never for more than a couple of days. Where is our week-plus of -40 to -50 F? We always get at least two weeks of that, and the first is almost always before Christmas.

Maybe we are just going to have a wonderfully pleasant winter... or maybe the cold is waiting, biding its time, allowing us to enjoy and adjust to this warmer winter weather while it prepares to mercilessly crush our spirits in late February. Yeah, that sounds more like Alaska.