Literally Cold Chillin'

Eli and I arrived late last night in Minneapolis, and guess what we saw as soon as we touched down on the runway? Snow! Okay, not so exciting for most people, I'm sure, but now that I'm a full-time Californian and rarely get around any large mountains this time of year I've really come to miss the white stuff. Now let me clarify, we did not see huge, fluffy blankets of snow, just some residual piles on the side of the runway, but that was enough to get us pumped for some real Midwest winter weather.

So fun to see my sister Jana, her husband Don, and darling, almost eight year old Solana who stayed home from school today (is it awful to be happy that she's running a fever so that we can play with her?). We haven't seen the other kids yet since they were all long gone to seminary and school before little Eli, and therefore I, decided to rise and shine at 10:00 this morning--another miracle of miracles--but just a few hours and we'll be hanging with Maina, Kaelan, and Kati just like the good ole days in Chico. We've missed seeing the Miller family as much as we used to when they lived in Cali, but their big, beautiful Wisconsin home with its huge yard and neighboring woods are helping me see why they love it here.

So here's hoping for some good, old-fashioned snow to fall while we're here the next week. Then maybe Eli and I won't look quite so silly every time we leave the house bundled up in our way-too-clean parkas, gloves, hats, and scarves. In fact, as we were taking a walk this morning, I realized that Eli has never even donned a pair of gloves! That would explain why he looked like he was doing the robot as he lifted his arms over and over again, trying to figure out how those mitten things worked and how they were attached to the big, puffy coat he was wearing.