The Family *roll

When we told people we were moving to Minnesota, their first impulse was to quote from Fargo. Their second impulse was to make some pronouncement about how cold it is in the winter. If they were wrong about Fargo (that’s North Dakota, not Minnesota), they were right about the weather. It’s cold here. Already, we’ve had temperatures that are colder than the coldest days we experienced in Chicago. But we do OK. The house is surprisingly free of drafts for a 90-year-old house. The baby has a space heater and Dan and I have the dog curled up under the blankets at night to keep us warm. For whatever reason, our bedroom is far and away the coldest room in the house. That picture at the right? It’s the frost on the window right next to Daniel’s head. [Daniel's note: That's pretty. Pretty fucking cold]

But the cold hasn’t stopped Eleanor and I from going on our walks. Our neighbors are treated to the grotesque sight of a bulbous, down, two-headed monster ambling down the street: Eleanor, bundled up in her hunting plaid fleece bunting, shoved in the Ergo, zipped underneath my mother-in-law’s down coat with her feet poking out at my hips. It’s not a pretty sight, but it gets us out of the house.

One interesting thing about Minnesota weather is that it’s perfectly acceptable to dwell on it in polite company. Even the indie rock station we routinely listen to has a detailed weather report every hour and MPR has a blog dedicated to talking about the weather to keep listeners sated between live call-in shows dedicated to the topic.

We got up close and personal with MN winter on Tuesday night when the power went out on the coldest night of the year so far (it was below 0 without windchill). A transformer burst around 8.30pm and the power company didn’t anticipate having things back up before 3am. Within 20 minutes of the power going out, the house became cold. It turns out we are ill-prepared for power-outages in sub-zero temperatures. We had candles. Plenty of candles. But no matches. Were it not for this summer’s camping trip, we would have been without a flashlight. With the house’s temperature dropping fast, we woke Eleanor up and decamped (with Belly) to Kim & Jason’s. Luckily, the baby has grown accustomed to traveling: she tolerated the abrupt change of scenery very well and slept soundly in her Pack n’ Play, lulled to sleep by a loop of white noise (pink noise, actually) downloaded by Jason at a moment’s notice.

We returned the next morning when Ellie woke-up and the house has been plenty warm since then. We’ve celebrated Hanukah and, with the purchase of our tree, we’re ready for Granny D‘s arrival on Sunday and Christmas.