I really thought I liked winter?

Alright...so I finally made it into my car and drove north on Saturday--and I did so in record time--Orlando to south side of Indy in 13.5 hours. woo!
So...Saturday evening...night...I arrived up in the huge metro of Cowan, IN to join in on the baking of Christmas cookies. I didn't take my atlas, and I kept trying to find my own way there. This added multiple hours onto my record time, bringing me closer to average time to get from FL to that part of the country. When I finally did make it, I got to the railroad tracks sitting alongside my cousin's home with the lights flashing and a train STOPPED. Ok...not a problem...went and walked the dog, pulled out socks and a sweatshirt, and it was still sitting. I went to the car ahead of me (you can do that in such a small town without either party worrying about being attacked) to ask if they knew a way around the train or how long they'd been there....no they didn't, weren't from the town and they'd been there a half hour. I finally used my inboard compass (in me, not the car) and went south, east, north and back west into town and what did I see when I pulled up in front of their house? THE TRAIN HAD LEFT!
OK, so we stayed up until almost 3 am (meaning I was up almost 24 hours at that point). They worked on cookies some more and we chatted a lot. Next morning, up and baking most of the day. I left around 5 pm and drove over to Lafayette, IN to see friends who live 30 miles from me in FL. We never seem to meet up in FL. But, their daughter from TN, who I went to high school with, was in town also, so I got to see her.
FINALLY reached Danville about 11pm (gained an hour) and crashed so I could get up at 6am to drive to Chicago for my first ever Chicago Christmas shopping. OH MY GOD. Y'know how it's called the Windy City? Not an understatement. Windchill had to be -100! We went into Marshall Fields...the big big one downtown. Pretty cool, but way too big for me. Nice food court though. I only bought Frango mints there. YUM! Walked around a little to see buildings with cousins Joy and Carol Ann. Joy left as we started up the Mag. Mile, but Carol Ann lead us up and we started finding stores where I did find things--most importantly and TWO STORY Eddie Bauer! We went into a couple other places and into Water Tower Place, and VOILA! most of my shopping is finished.
The drive home was pretty quiet, although at one point we did have to stop and make sure we were going the right way. In board compass had a minor glitch...was going south when I should have been going east.
Off to finish shopping and getting ready for the return trip to FL.