Holidazzle 2008

Minnesotans thrive in the cold. They are hearty, hearty folk. I am not from Minnesota and, therefore, there are things that I will never do. For example, I will never drive my car onto a frozen body of water. Cars are heavy...ice cracks...cold water kills. There are things that I have to do, however, because I live here and my kids have this crazy idea that they should not have to stay in the house from November through May. So, we ice skate and go sledding and we go to the Holidazzle Parade. Luisa and I instigate this outing each year and then, apparently, I stand on the curb and ask in a surly tone, "Whose idea was this?!" I still remember watching the parade during an ice storm when I was 7 months pregnant. I'm sure you can imagine how much fun I had that year.  Luisa spearheaded the outing this year. She sent out an e-mail to all of our friends and set the date for this past Saturday. I was on board with the plan until she casually mentioned on that morning that it was supposed to be about 10 degrees that night with a wind chill that would make it feel like 2 degrees (That's -16 C to you, Lula)! I started thinking that I should stay home and sip cocoa by the fire. We don't have a fire place but I felt so panicky about the cold that burning our furniture to keep from certain death seemed completely reasonable. I am a hothouse flower - I am not cut out for the cold. 

It took a half hour for me to put on the clothing necessary to survive the cold...wool socks, long underwear, snow pants, long-sleeved shirt, fleece jacket, fleece scarf, fleece hat and down coat with hood. I don't know what the kids wore - it was survival of the fittest, my friends! I kid, I kid. The kids were dressed appropriately as you can see from the pictures. We then headed out with thermoses of hot chocolate and a bag of mini-marshmallows. Once we arrived downtown and the children were settled on the curb to watch, I went to Starbucks for coffee and the Starbucks people must have spiked my latte because I had a fabulous time and not once did I utter my signature phrase. Hell, we even look happy in the pictures! Ya sure, you betcha!

Zeca, the love child of Marge Gunderson and the Easter Bunny!