What to do when it's cold

The Jingle Bell run was successfully accomplished by half the family, the other half retired indoors as soon as possible because it was so cold.

We discovered a new and interesting fact about LMI: She really hates being cold.

The story of Sunday:

After an early start and a somewhat skiddy trip to the freeway, we made it safely into Seattle. After parking in the underground car park of the Pacific Place Mall, the children were bundled up in multiple layers, and in LMI's case the outer most layer was her ski suit. Mittens and hats all round. We then ventured into the great outdoors. With 20 seconds of being outside, LMI was wailing because her face was cold.

Being a caring parent, I pulled her hat down and her collar up, so only a narrow strip of face from nose to eyebrows was exposed.

We checked in with some other members of Team Pip, and then the Fingers Family proceeded to the start line. LMI continued to intermittently wail and gnash her teeth about the temperature. LMI and I waved PuffyFingers and the OH off on their 1k jaunt around the streets of Seattle.

As I still refused to take her indoors, because we needed to wait at the finish line, LMI decided that the cold could be coped with no longer, and took the only option available to a 3 year old. She lay on the pavement, face down, and cried. As I was still doing the caring parent thang, after controlling my laughter, I pointed out that lying on an ice cold pavement really wasn't going to help her warm up.

Fortunately, PuffyFingers has a good turn of speed for a 5 year old and we really didn't have to wait too long. Just as well, LMI might have frozen to the pavement if she'd had to wait much longer.

Then we cheered the OH off on the 5K run and the girls and I retired indoors for hot chocolate and cookies (or coffee and a scone in my case). I had a moment of guilt when PuffyFingers was complaining about the pain in her fingers as they warmed up. I don't think letting arthritic fingers get really, really cold was particularly nice of me. But I truly thought that the running would help keep her warm, I'll know better for next time.

Many thanks to everyone who sponsored us. Sorry that we didn't all achieve the 5K as intended, but at least two of us participated. And I think you'll all forgive me for not torturing LMI any further by insisting she walked 5K in the cold.