Our family just returned from an evening stroll in Downtown Raleigh.  We admired the holiday lights and the official N.C. Christmas tree, checked out the Winterfest Ice Rink, and warmed ourselves up with hot chocolate at Starbucks on Fayetteville Street before strolling back home.

What a great way to start off 2010.  This is the stuff that wonderful family memories are made of.

That’s Life in Raleigh.

So the National Weather Service is predicting that we may have the longest cold stretch in a generation, possibly lasting more than a week.  The forecast is cold:  Highs between 35 and 42 and lows between 17-25.  Oh, and we’re going to have wind chill on top of that.

Even more remarkable than this “prolonged” cold snap, though, is what I heard on my trusty weather radio this afternoon about the average temperatures here in Raleigh, North Carolina, the first week in January.  Namely that our normal average high is 50 and our normal average low is 30.  In January.

I can look back now on my summer entries regarding the heat and know those temperatures are definitely bearable in exchange for these kind of average normal temps come January.  Except for about a week every generation or so.

That’s Life in Raleigh.