> 1. Winter in New Hampshire is generally worse than winter in Calgary. I've always known Calgary winters were mild, but here is some nice solid proof. (I do realize I'm getting stories of the worst winter conditions in NH, but I stand my ground on this one.)

You are getting the worst of it. Monday's snowstorm was the worst in three years, and the Carmen storm wasn't so much record precipitation as it was a bizarre mix of varying types of precipitation and temperatures fluctuating above and below freezing over a short period of time. Plus, the plows were busy. I'm sure later that night a plow came by and cleaned all that mess up, or at least the frozen part of it.

> 2. Winter in New Hampshire is not quite as bad as winter in Grimshaw (where I grew up) but they are very close. Grimshaw mainly wins out by virtue of the fact that it usually has snow on the ground in Septemeber and that snow doesn't leave until April most years. (I assume that winter in NH is shorter than this, but I guess I really don't know for sure...)

The snow sticks around until late March, sometimes into April, but although we usually get snowfall before Christmas, sometimes even before Thanksgiving, it's a race every year to see if we'll get snowfall that doesn't melt on contact before Christmas. It's not always a white Christmas here, but it was this year. It's VERY rare for New Years to be snowless, though.

> 3. I would LOVE to go to New Hampshire during the winter and play in the snow with Sam. How many ways has Sam said "Winter rules" now? I wonder how Leen feels about winter...

Hates it. If temperature were the only issue, she'd move south to the warm weather. On the other hand, if it weren't for shoveling and bad driving conditions, she'd still like snow in moderation. She had fun on our crazy excursion last night, even if she was a bit nervous while on the road.