You know you've aclimatized when

I'm originally from Central Alberta where winter weather is full of snow and frigid temperatures, wind chills of -40C and blinding white sun reflecting off of the frosty snow drifts. You'd think that a minor wind chill of -15C would be a balmy temperature for this girl wouldn't you? Not so much. But then even when I lived in Alberta I always thought that the people dressing in shorts and no coats at the first sign of thawing, when the thermometer read 0, were just plain nuts.

So I've lived on the west coast for about ten years now and I find it cold when the temperature drops to 5C. I miss snow and love watching it fall. So when we get a snow fall I experience a sense of pure bliss, and I love going out in it unless I'm in the midst of a cold/flu fight, which it turns out I am. So on Saturday night I was at once pleased and annoyed with the snow fall. I'm still sneezing, coughing and blowing my nose at least once every 5 minutes so going out and enjoying the crisp air and icy snow is right off my list of things to do and when the weather report included a wind chill warning I decided to hunker down at home instead of head off to Playgroup 17 blocks at the bottom of Lonsdale Avenue.

Call me a wuss and a suck but I'm acclimatized to the mild Vancouver weather now and -15C is now a frigid temperature. Not to mention that my little bundle of activity isn't ready for that kind of trek out of doors. Now if we still lived in Alberta that would be another story entirely.

In the past we've headed to Alberta for the holidays and always returned with a new sense of how warm our winters are in comparison, for a good two weeks after walking out of the Vancouver Airport and breathing in the moist not too cold air I can appreciate the balminess of the air and how delicious it feels on the face as opposed to dry stinging cold. This year we're staying put and I'm not only going to miss seeing family and friends but also the chance to know what true winter feels like.