One of Hedge Witch's brothers that was in visiting is from the 'mitten' of Michigan, which I believe is your general area. He says the winters there are roughly the same as what we see here. I wouldn't wish this on anybody, even though there are some people out there who are absolutely smitten with hard winters. Takes all types, I guess :D
The holidays for me are always sort of something to 'make it through', but all the extra joy this year did make the time pass a little more pleasantly! It has been more than a few years since I had any children to worry about for Christmas, and having children that I don't have to worry about was way better!
Glad you learned something, I always wonder if anybody out there is getting anything useful out of this stuff. I've been trying to do more personal posts with this account, and less straight how-to, while still keeping things educational for diy minded folks. I'd like to branch out into videos someday, but there are only so many hours...