Winter in Cincinnati

Apparently it does snow in Cincinnati. After having temperatures of near 70 degrees for a couple of days last week, it has now plummeted down to below freezing. We have even been getting some snow showers over the past couple of days. We have had a few small snow storms earlier in the winter, but nothing compared to the other places that I have lived. As I was looking out our window yesterday, I kept thinking about how strange it was to see green grass in the middle of the winter time. Doesn't grass normally turn brown and get covered with snow that doesn't melt for months? So far I have been quite pleased with the Cincinnati winter, but I am anxiously awaiting spring and the great parks around!

We also got spoiled and spent 11 days in Arizona over Christmas time, visiting Pat's family. I have decided that I will definitely be getting a winter house there when I am older. I loved being able to go running every morning in short sleeves and not having the cold air burn my lungs. I was also a huge fan of all of the fresh fruit that they have there that is so cheap. I ate a ton of pineapple, oranges, and grapefruit. It's amazing what having sunshine everyday in the middle of wintertime will do for your spirits! I am really missing that now as the long, cold winter days are setting in! We had a really great time with Pat's family as well! We haven't had much of an opportunity to spend alot of time with them since the Christmas before we were married and it was fun to get to know them better! Sophie still talks about Grandma , Aunt Debbie and "Henen" (Helen) all the time. She loved Aunt Debbie because she was so willing to read books to her and do puzzles with her, over and over and over again.

It is so fun to have a little one at Christmas time! Because we were traveling, we actually ending up having three different Christmases-one at Pat's moms, one for our little family when we got back and then a week or so later when the packages from my family arrived. It didn't take long for Sophie to catch on to opening gifts and she was kind enough to open all of mine for me ;)! Santa Claus brought her a kitchen (though he did forget to leave a stove...supposed to be delivering sometime in the next couple of weeks). Anyway, Sophie came down the stairs and saw the little kitchen with presents around it and stopped and just looked at it with her mouth open. She than took off running toward it and stopped to look closely at it and pick up a few dishes on it. She then turned to me and said " Sophie? " She was so amazed that it was for her. She will now spend hours at a time playing with the kitchen, her play food and the baby that Grandma H. sent her. Having a little one to share Christmas with sure does bring back the magic! I'll try to get a few Christmas pictures up over the next couple of days. Our computer has been kind of hit and miss for a few weeks-unfortunately for our budget it is probably time for a new one.