When Does Winter Begin For You?

This morning on the Weather Channel, they were asking this question, "When Does Winter Begin For You?". The choices were: November 1, December 1, December 21. They were reading email responses, mainly from people in the Northeast or Upper Midwest.

Dan & I got to talking about when winter begins for us. Since we live in Arizona, it varies from year to year. Some years, we don't have winter. But generally, Fall begins the last week of November and lasts through the third week of December (IF we have Fall at all, most years we don't). We did have Fall this year, it started about two weeks ago when the trees actually changed colors after two cold nights. Winter generally begins the third week of December and lasts through the third week of January. Then Spring begins.

We are so spoiled here, and we know it. I was whining the other day when we were running errands at 9:00 am. I had on a 3/4 length sleeve shirt, jeans, flip flops, and a sweater. I was "freezing cold". I was complaining about the fact that I might have to put on socks and shoes. After whining a few seconds about the 50 degree temps, I laughed about how spoiled we are. Even when it's the height of summer, we're still spoiled. We rarely have to have a Plan B for an outdoor event. We celebrate a cloudy day, and run outside to stand in a ten minute rain storm because it's such a novelty. We thrill at Monsoon Season, when almost every day offers the chance of a thunderstorm, but rarely delivers. On the other hand, we don't notice the number of days since the last rain until it reaches around 90 days.

I love it here. I enjoy watching the snow storms on the TV, but if I never feel snow again, it won't matter to me. Which leads me to my current complaint. It might only reach 63 on Christmas Day here, and I'm worried because we don't have a fireplace in this house. What will we do to stay warm?!