What is the first thing that comes to mind when you hear those words?

For me, I envision an aurora borealis, (though in truth I have never seen one) lots of Christmas lights, snow, cold temperatures…filling the air with smoke on every exhale. I am stopping here because that is where I go dark. The cold, brrrr. The gray skies that make me feel sad. The winds that chap your face and hands. I live in Florida now, and while I miss many things about the northeast (I am a Philadelphia native) – and I need to add that I lived in the city because too many people from too far away call themselves Philadelphians. They are not. And they’ll tell you that it’s because people wouldn’t know where “insert lame suburb name here” is…and they would be right, so I say, own up to it, don’t steal someone else’s home town. Anyway, that’s how proud I am of my Philadelphia roots. But back to the cold. Now I do have health issues that make me feel the cold more than the average person. At times, it was truly unbearable. But even more than the cold is the gray dreariness that seems to arrive when the clocks change back to standard time. A fall day could start out so promising, sunny and not too cold. Then the day wears on, the sun becoming increasingly covered by clouds, the temperate declining likewise. The bitter cold would arrive as the last sliver of cold drab sky disappeared, with winds increasing simultaneously. That cold wind would create what I used to call “the face”. There was a mirrored wall at the entrance of our home, and I always saw it once the weather turned dreary. Forehead wrinkled, a deep scowl, ruddy cheeks and neck pulled into the scarf as a turtle does when it senses danger. Ahhh, the face is back I would think to myself, and there it would remain until early May. The extreme heat here is sometimes uncomfortable but never what I would call unbearable and yet while that might be a slight variation, it is one that has led me south, sans “the face”.

I do miss the beautiful snowy mornings. The kind where the snow glistens like diamonds and a quiet settles all around as the snow has cushioned everything, everywhere. If it has snowed more than 6 inches, there will be no school buses and it will be hours before the kids start building snow forts and having snowball fights. And the Christmas lights never look prettier than when they are surrounded by puffy billows of snow. That beauty, in my Florida brain opinion however, is short lived, with gray mush, red chapped hands, slippery icy sidewalks and the dreaded “black ice’ will follow in its stead. In fact, it was during such times that I would call our then travel agent to discuss winter get aways (mostly cruises, which were very reasonable in the 80’s, 90’s). The time getting ready for (about 2 weeks) then actually going (1 week) and for maybe a week or so after, shortened the painful lifespan of winter by nearly a month. I can recall on the plane when leaving, as we flew over the city, it was like the Wizard of Oz prelude where everything was in black and white, then landing in OZ just over two hours later, with everything sunny, bright and colorful – azure skies, sparkling waters, tropical flowers in all their colorful glory – It was only a matter of time (12 years to be exact) when we would say – enough, it’s time to live warmly, colorfully and I have never regretted it. People will often say to me, “oh we could never give up our four seasons” (same people who would claim to be from Philly, but were in fact from Crap County).

Conversely, palm trees are actually quite annoying during the holidays. A constant reminder that there will be no white Christmas, and the best we can hope for is lower humidity while cooking Christmas dinner. The people that put lights on palm trees are to be avoided as anyone who does that has very little brain power, and if you get to close to them they might try to suck yours out of you. As soon as New Year’s Day arrives however, it’s all good again, and I am ready to jump right back into the spring/fall weather of Florida that I love so much. This also leads me to respond to the “four seasons” people. Florida also has 4, we have a 3 month fall, November, December and January, a 3 month spring, February, March and April, a 3 month summer, May, June and July plus 3 month hell-summer-with – potential-hurricanes, which is August, September and October. Looking it at it month/month, our hell summer in basically in place of your winter and that is a trade I can live with.

Years ago, I can remember freezing my arse off taking down holiday decorations on January 1st in full “rip the band aid” off style. Winter doldrums are here, so let’s just get on with it as I sit there whimpering all the while…how many days til Spring? 79 days to fake spring, 80 on leap year (it’s still really cold in March anyway).And so then I would begin my very slow countdown fully knowing that calendar Spring arrives March 21, but rarely was it ever warm enough to be called actual spring before Mother’s Day – nearly 2 months later! Now, here on the other hand, the warm weather (aka unbearable) begins no later than May 1 and lasts through to Halloween. So we get 6 months of unbearable weather followed by an equal number of tropical delightful weather. Did I mention the sun? Because truly, it’s actually NEVER sunny in Philadelphia and ALWAYS sunny in Florida! Yes, year round sun – even the “rainy days” last only a few hours. So while Philly lives in my heart, my head knows that I need to be in Florida. There have been times when I have waxed wistfully for that holiday respite of wintry weather, and that is usually remedied by a short trip north for a memory check. As I review my writing, it is more of a “I love Florida’ than a “winter solstice” piece – to that I say po-tay-toe, po-tah-toe!

It is why I self describe as a “Philadelphia native, a Florida resident, but I’d always rather be in Rome”. Rome is quite another, much longer, more colorful story.