So, I’m really trying to learn to love the Winter Wonderland that we now call home.
In all honesty, there really are some amazing highlights to living in Maine during the winter…we are definitely going to have a white Christmas (we should hit almost two feet of snow by Christmas day), nothing shuts down here for a snow storm (want to eat out during a blizzard? Everything’s open, just hop in your 4 wheel drive vehicle), flights go out snow or no snow….

But then there are things that I honestly had no idea I needed to be prepared for.
For example, my lips – just like my hair- are shriveled and dried beyond repair.

(real life, no make up, don’t judge)

It doesn’t seem to matter what products I use, my lips are chapped beyond belief at all times. If the negative temps don’t suck the moisture out of everything you’ve got, the forced hot air through 100 year air ducts will definitely do it.
Today I’m on the hunt for a humidifier for our bedroom to hopefully take the edge off….we noticed yesterday that even Macie the dog has extremely dry skin!

And then there are the parking lots.
I was prepared to really learn to drive in major snow for the first time in my life. In all honesty, the main roads are plowed constantly – and since we chose to live in the city, so are our neighborhood roads. But parking lots are a whole other story. Going to the grocery store is like taking my own life in my hands.
Parking lots are plowed…but not nearly as often or thoroughly as the main roads. Add constant traffic and semi melted snow and you’ve got a situation. Pushing a full grocery cart over 5 inches of icy slush might be one of the hardest workouts ever. Add that to the fact that the same slush will make the back tires of a car get loose in a serious way, walking through a parking lot somewhat makes me feel like a sitting duck.

All that slush also makes it hard for drivers to see the lines in the parking lot, so parking spots are sorta just based on your best estimate of where the lines are…so, grabbing a good spot becomes a fun game of Parking Lot Roulette.
While you risk your life making a spot for yourself in the name of fresh milk and breakfast bars, you have one last element to contend with:
the snow mountains.

As the plows work their temporary magic around the lot, they push all of the snow into mountains around the edges of the lot. Seeing as it’s cold here until May, those mountains do nothing but grow taller and wider for 5 months out of the year. Think you can navigate around a snow slush mountain? Then you’re a better Maine driver than I am!

So, who wants to come visit?!

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