Merry Christmas!

Well, we survived our first year back in Minnesota and as a reminder of what we had been missing, we had 8 months of snow.  Yes, our Atlanta friends, that’s October 25^th through… ahem... May 2nd! For all you Laura Ingalls Wilder fans, that is the approximate length of the Long Winter of 1880 that began in October and ended in April.  Thank goodness for snow tires. And Ice skates.  And Starbucks!

Now that we’ve been back a year, it has become clear to us that there are many distinct differences between the North and the South. These are differences we might never have appreciated had we not spent a significant amount of time in both places.  Here are a few of our findings:

ATLANTA:  People drive home from work, don their Tour de France spandex and go for a bike ride on the greenway.

MINNESOTA:  People put rubber bands around their pants legs and bike to work. Even in the snow.  Seriously.

ATLANTA:  Average drive time to Chick-fil-A:  4 minutes, 37 seconds.

MINNESOTA:  Average one-way drive time to Chick-fil-A:  37 minutes, 4 seconds. (And yes, we have made the hour plus round trip drive because we are just that grateful that they finally (in October!) opened a free-standing Chick-fil-A franchise in this state! And, by the way all you Minnesotans, the Chicken Minis are totally worth the drive!)

MINNESOTA:  Plaid (Flannel) Shirts.  Big Beards.

ATLANTA:  Plaid (Ralph Lauren) Shorts.  Big Hair.

MINNESOTA:  People are too cheap to pay for the coat check.

ATLANTA:  There is no coat check.

ATLANTA:  If it’s 95 degrees: football practice is held in full pads and helmets.

MINNESOTA: If it’s 95 degrees:  all sports are cancelled.  Oh yeah.  And SCHOOL is cancelled (August 29 & August 30 2013, Minneapolis Public Schools).

ATLANTA:  Six inches of snow shuts down school for 5 days (January 10-14, 2011).  Of course, having just returned from our annual Christmas trip in Minnesota, our boots and snow pants were stuck on a FedEx truck somewhere in Tennessee.

MINNESOTA: The Twin Cities experience well over 10 inches of snowfall overnight. School starts on time. (December 9, 2012).  The bus is on time, which, of course, we miss because I’m searching the computer for the school cancellation notice!)

MINNESOTA:  When you see a VW Bug you hit your brother and say “Slug Bug” because it rhymes.

ATLANTA:  When you see a VW Bug you hit your brother and say “Punch Buggy.”

MINNESOTA:  You say, “You get what you get and you don’t get upset.” (Because get rhymes with upset.)

ATLANTA:  You say, “You get what you get and you don’t pitch a fit.” (Because “git” rhymes with “fit”.)

ATLANTA:  Recess is held indoors if it’s colder than 32 degrees.

MINNESOTA:  They send entire the entire fifth grade to an overnight nature camp when the wind chill reads in the single digits and then they require students and chaperones (a.k.a. ME) to spend three hours on the high ropes course in boots, snow pants and Elmer Fudd hats.

MINNESOTA:  When you ask for a Coke, they say, "Is Pepsi OK?"

ATLANTA:  When you ask for a Coke, they say, “What kind?”

ATLANTA:  The only proper response to a male teacher at school is, “Yes, sir!”

MINNESOTA:  Responding, “Yes, Sir” to a teacher can lead to detention. (Apparently, it comes across as sarcasm!) (Don’t ask us how we know this!:-)

ATLANTA:  Can’t find a ticket to the Georgia Bulldawg games.

MINNESOTA: SIX SEASON TICKETS TO THE GOLDEN GOPHER GAMES!! 

Celebrating the Miracle of Christ's Birth!

Love,

Rachel