cold

Stu and the kids and I are on the road, traveling to Kansas for the week of Christmas where we'll spend a whirlwind week visiting his parents, my parents and brother (who don't live in Kansas but are traveling there for the holiday), my mom's siblings and other various family members, plus some friends in the area. It's 700 miles from Madison to Newton, too far to go in one day with small children, so we're spending the night outside of Kansas City and finishing the trip tomorrow. Going through Iowa wasn't much fun; they just had a nasty ice storm a couple days ago, and we saw at least a dozen cars that had not yet been pulled out of the ditch. Once we got past Des Moines the roads were okay, but dude it is COLD outside. I'm not usually the type to go on and on about weather, but these days, the weather is dominating our lives. Wisconsin has already had more than 30" of snow this year - about three times the normal - but the misery of snow is nothing compared to the brutal breathtaking cold temperatures in Liberty, Missouri tonight. It's somewhere close to zero and the wind is ferocious. I'm glad we have a nice warm place to sleep.