Cathy, I would love to send you some of our cold weather. Having lived in PA for 21 years and in countries around the world that had the same kind of weather, we enjoy the warmer weather here in AZ, but it does get cold. The coldest I have seen here is 18 above zero, and that is cold! We do miss the snow at times, and I don't mind driving in it, but the people is Southern AZ don't know how to drive in the snow. I drove coal truck in PA for a while, and believe me, that could be a challenge at times. We are three miles from Fort Huachuca, and the weather station there reported wind gusts to 94 miles an hour the other night. Of course, the fort is a little higher elevation and closer to the mountains. It is also more wide open than we are downtown, so that accounts for the difference. We had 74 mile an hour gusts downtown. Don in AZ

I have been reading all the messages about the weather in various parts of the country. I am in IOWA, and believe you me, we got stomped on yesterday and last night!! My hubby went out to blow the snow this morning---took him 2 hours to blow it out, and our drive isn't all that big. Plus the danged stuff was clear up to his knees!! You should see the NE corner of my garage roof---there is a pyramid on that corner that is HUGE!! I just laughed last night when I looked out and saw that!! It was funny. Needless to say there wasn't any school at all today--and they dismissed at 11:30 yesterday. So we have had a BORED 16 year old girl at home with us---driving us around the bend, so to speak!! Sigghhh!! I need to get busy and do more genealogy, but I have also been trying to get things rounded up for Christmas. Most of my family lives out in UT, where I am sure they are getting snow, too. Which means I better get busy and get things mailed out there. I came up with a different idea this year for gifts for my granddaughters. When my Mom died, she left me her big jewelry box full of things. She loved jewelry, and bought nice stuff at the jewelry stores. It is just sitting there in the box, and I don't wear any of it. So I went through it, sorted out a bunch of gold and silver chains, and took them to the jewelry store to be cleaned. I am going to pass them along to the girls now, rather than have all of the things probably tossed out when I am gone. This way they will know it belonged to their great-grandmother, and some from me, too. I hope they will appreciate the things--I thought it was a good idea! Hope they will, too! Hope all of you terrific "listers" have a terrific Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!! And I am trying to stress to my family to do more things for others less fortunate this year---that way we can pass along our Christmas wishes to others. Stay warm everyone!! Janice in NW Iowa