It takes time to experiment with long exposure stuff. What you want to do is when you are nice and warm at home, turn off most of the lights and play around with settings to get used to changing them quickly. you will get some really good shots there I think.
Yea, probably being outside in cold and with no tripod didn't help much. It is fun tho to fiddle around with different settings and see how the pictures turn out. Will keep at it.