First Day of Winter?

Today may have been the first taste of winter. At least it was a taste of what's to come. The temperature today at 4:00 PM was 25 degrees Fahrenheit with a wind chill of 17 degrees. It is hard to imagine what it will be like when it is 20 degrees colder than now.

What do you wear when it's this cold? Here's what we had on for starters: Long johns and pants; 1 undershirt, 2 long sleeve shirts, and a fleece jacket; and don't forget the hat and gloves.

We have not yet busted out the warmest winter gear. As the Chinese saying goes, you are supposed to greet winter slowly (i.e. put on your layers a little at a time so you don't use all your warn stuff before the temperatures really drop). The same is true for spring, take your layers off slowly (probably because there is always one last winter burst that comes along).

UPDATE: When we checked the weather this morning the high was -14 degrees Celsius (aka 7 degrees F for all your folks in America). I had the strange urge to run outside really fast just to see what it felt like. I didn't probably because of the fact that 7 will be the high some days in the true dead of winter. But I have no reference for what that cold feels like.

The weather here can be very deceiving. In our apartment, all our windows face south, so we get a lot of sunlight. With it being sunny and clear, and the inside apartment all toasty, it is really difficult to put on all the layers of clothes and venture outside. We have found out though that once all the clothes are on, we better be heading out the door quickly before we overheat inside.