Cold For Christmas

It has not been feeling at all like Christmas in North Carolina, what with our seventy degree December. It has made dressing for Christmas parties difficult. What might they be wearing in Palm Beach?
Today we remedied that global warming holiday feeling by coming north to Pennsylvania to visit Russ’ father and celebrate his 75th birthday and see his siblings and families. Bucks county 

has done its best to provide that seasonal spirit with lots of cold.
We flew in to Philly and before we went to get our rental car Russ, Carter and I went to our TSA interviews to get our Global Entry cards. The only place in North Carolina you can get your interview is Charlotte, so getting interview times that corresponded with our arrival was a huge bonus. After traversing the multiple terminals we finally found the secret intercom where we gave the password and were buzzed in, but first were told through the squawk box to “make sure no one is following you.” Is this some kind of test?  
We were put in a room with a TV playing a continuous loop instructional video about global entry and all the infractions that could get us disqualified. Since we were fifteen minutes early for our appointment and the TSA agent was fifteen minutes late we memorized the entire video. I secretly thought the interview was them watching us watching the video and if we did not pull the cord out of the continuous loop of the annoying video we could be considered safe enough to be let into the country without having to be interrogated by a human.
Once we determined what my real name was we passed the interview and were on our way with our new global entry numbers, no shoe or belt removal in our future.
As if the cold was not enough of a slap, driving on I-95 reminded me why we moved away from here. We got to Icepa’s house and had enough time to visit with Carter’s cousin Bree before heading further north to Peddler’s Village for dinner and a good dose of Christmas lights and nose freezing.
After a dinner of colonial style Turkey we wandered the shops and picked up a couple of Christmas gifts. Finally it was feeling like the holiday season. I only had to leave home and fly five hundred miles to find it.