I love North Carolina!

While I lived in Boston, my mom would occasionally call to smugly tell me that was 70 or 75 degrees back in Raleigh while we were anticipating another snowstorm or arctic blast to come through in New England. The first year we were married, Boston received over 80" of snow. They literally had to truck the snow out of the city - it was piled four or five feet high on the sides of the roads and it just wouldn't get warm enough to melt. For months at a time. My first winter, we had constant snow cover in our north-facing front yard from November until April. In March, it finally melted down far enough to see the layer of pine needles from our Christmas tree in December. People were ice skating on the Charles River. The one upside of our car being stolen three years ago was that I didn't have to dig it out of the 26" snowstorm that came through the next day.

When we were debating as to where we should move, I imposed the Canada rule. This rule stated that we could not move to any state that touched Canada. They were all too cold. We could also not move any farther north than Boston. I had had enough snow and cold to last me a lifetime.

So when we finally decided to move to North Carolina, I was thrilled - no more terrible winters EVER! Several weeks ago, the office manager at Chad's office reminisced about the last major snowstorm to come through Jacksonville - 19 years ago. And so far this winter, the weather is working out better than even I could have hoped. While much of the country has received snow storms and ice storms over the past week, today's high is 76 here in Jacksonville. Tomorrow should hit 80. I'm wearing flip-flops and T-shirts in December! Nathan and I will be taking a walk later, and there will be no need for his new winter coat. I think I've died and gone to heaven. My heaven, mind you. In Chad's, they'll be skiing year-round.