One of the conditions of moving to California was that we had to
return to Minnesota for Christmas every year. Christmases are meant to be snowy and white with crisp air that puffs like smoke from your mouth when you breath. The pine trees should be layered with snow and the other trees should have frosted branches that sparkle and shimmer in the sunlight. Snow should be piled up on the side of the driveway like frosting on the edge of a cake. If the air is crisp enough, your nose and cheeks will have a rosy glow to them when you come in from outside and the tips of your eyelashes will be frosted. All of it very invigorating, getting the blood pumping and making me feel alive!
 |
| Christmas 2014 |
 |
| Christmas 2013 |
This year, the temps were 60 degrees warmer compared to last year when we got of the plane in Brainered, Minnesota. Last year, the temperature was -32 and the first breath of fresh, crisp, Minnesota air seared our lungs (love that! though the rest of my family does not). This year, the temperature was 30 above zero. I stepped off the plane and breathed deep, excited for the first really cold, really fresh breath of air I'd had since leaving Minnesota last year after Christmas, but it didn't sear my lungs and let me know I was alive. It was just like any other breath in any other part of the country. I was so disappointed!
 |
| Christmas 2014 |
On the way to my parents house from the airport, it started to rain. Rain!?!? It's supposed to snow! Don't get me wrong, I love rain, but just not at Christmas time in northern Minnesota. If it rained this time of year at home in southern California, I would be doing a happy dance and taking the day off from work to enjoy it, but not in northern Minnesota at Christmas! The worst part was the rain was washing away what little snow there was on the ground.
 |
| Christmas 2013 |
I tried not to despair. I looked at the forecast on my phone again, reassured by the promise of cooler temperatures and snow for the next two days after that awful rainy day. I breathed a sigh of relief that the temps would drop and the snow would come in time for Christmas and all would be right with the world....but then the forecast changed! More rain, more warm temps, more melting. And now there isn't a little snowy cloud symbol on my mobile weather app until AFTER Christmas! This isn't supposed to happen in Minnesota! We aren't supposed to ever be concerned about not having a white Christmas. Hell would freeze over before Minnesota would have a Christmas without snow!
Well, hell sure as hell ain't frozen over, and neither are we....
