It is significantly warmer in Arizona.

Late last night, the husband and I pulled into the driveway after a long drive back down to the desert from the land up north.  All I have to say is, it is significantly warmer down here in Arizona than it is up there.  Before we left for our long awaited holiday hiatus I rummaged through the entire house packing every last bit of warm clothing we had, and as I did a brief inventory before shoving the goods into several duffel bags and one ridiculously large suitcase, I thoroughly convinced myself that we were all going to be warm enough.  All three of my kidlets had grown out of the winter coats they wore when we moved away from the land of ice 2 years ago and down to the valley of the sun.  And coats are just not something you need in Arizona.  A jacket at most will suffice in the dead of winter.  I say dead, but really everything dies in the summer here… I digress, though.  I thought we were set with enough layers until I emerged from the car in the middle of the countryside in Shelley, Idaho and that spine splitting Idaho wind hit me in the chest and cut straight through my body.  I realized then that the seven pairs of ballet flats I packed were just not going to suffice.  How do you walk in the snow with those?  And no socks… not an option. All I can say is THANK GOODNESS for my knee high riding boots and jeggings.  I lived in those things, drank lots and lots of hot chocolate, froze my patootie (is that really a word?) off, and did without a whole lot of style for the eleven days we were gone.  I’ve spent the last couple years searching for my personal style, but I’ve never had to deal with the cold.  When we lived in a place that snowed I wore long sleeved-tees and dr. martens.  I know.  SAD.  Down here, my biggest hindrance to my style lies on the other end of the spectrum, when it’s a hundred- bajillion degrees during the summer it’s hard to wear anything but the coolest shorts you can find and a tee-shirt.  The winter is my favorite time to dress how I like down here.  It’s like fall weather for 5 months.  Lovely.  Today I donned my 3/4 sleeve cardi and ballet flats with pleasure…