What they are now calling the Polar Vortex used to be called the Montreal express. I baked, I made soups, I dress properly--warm shoes and socks, jersey and sweater, tights and pants. When I went outside, I made sure I had a hat, gloves, scarf and good warm coat. Our new (in-law) living space is well insulated, so we do not turn up the heat--as I said we just dress properly. For entertainment, I read and I knitted. And before we knew it, it was back up to 50 deg. and melting snow. (southeastern MA)

Another name for those cold snaps were Alberta Clippers. Not sure if they are alll the same thing but that cold was brutal.

Windchill in Michigan was brutal. Drank lots of hot coffee and tea, cozied up to the fireplace and watched the British series "Doc Martin" . We "escaped" into the beautiful scenery of the series and the beautiful, lush foliage made us forget about the weather outside. Oh...and lit lots of candles in the evening to "warm" things up!

Driving my Jetta, I got stuck on an iced back road in Virginia while snowing. Nothing gives more relief than a colorful jacket, a travel pillow, a blanket, a granola bar, bottle of drinking water, a full battery BlackBerry Z10 and........a tank full of gas. it saved my life at 2*F!

ur a trooper Javier B. :) As long as your toasty inside its kind of refreshing and beautiful to go out in it. We only got a 0 degree Fahrenheit in NJ.

Layers and layers of clothing. Unfortunately I still have to work. As a visiting nurse patients are seen no matter how hot or cold! If I had my druthers I would take the option of the blankets and a book by the fireplace.

When the furnace broke in -40 degree temps. I bundled up with our yellow lab, Jack and read books. When the new furnace was installed and the indoor temp. plummeted to 43 degrees, we went to our friends' house for spaghetti and a raging fire in the fireplace. Six of us enjoyed the evening while our houses warmed up. Winter in Wisconsin is a team sport!

Well, I faced it head on beginning with my normal AM walk with my dog. Dressed properly, of course! It was 8 degrees when we left the house at 6 AM and 7 degrees when we returned at 7 AM. But probably best of all . . . for many years I've said "I'm not going through another winter with out a heated toilet seat!" To me, the worst part of winter is a frigid toilet seat! So I got one! What a treat! No more complaints about the cold for me!

enjoy the snow always! just dressed for the weather and went about my day the bet as possable. god is good.

And here in Australia, we are sizzling, with bad fires and homes lost in Perth today. We get a lot of stuff about global warming, being the cause of all this crazy weather, and there is probably some truth in it, but the extremists carry on a treat. Do you have global warming constant talk, when you have weather extremes, or do you just accept it as weather?

I have to kinda chuckle at the whole thing. It seems it's such a big deal to have to put up with snow, ice, freezing temps, wind & the inconvenience of not being able to get out. The reality is there are many places in the US that experience this kind of weather every winter. I live in the Rockies. Vacationers come to enjoy all that our winter season offers, but then they go home to a more moderate climate. Some of us live at the tree line, the tundra as I call it, winter is 6 months long or longer, love it or hate it. We shovel snow everyday, shovel our roof tops, go to work & school everyday (2 snow days in the last 31 years) no matter the temp. We just bundle up and deal with it. The weather might be a drawback for some, but most of us love where we live. By the way, the only time our pipes froze was when Maybell, CO, 30 miles to our west, set the state record for the coldest temp back in the 1980's at -50 degrees!

I wore 2 parkas ... that's a little trick of mine :) It was -46 in Wisconsin and happy my car started at 6 am every morning.

nanjday
I re-read Memoirs of a Geisha while eating dark chocolate and drinking hot tea by the fireplace, wrapped in a quilt with my shih-tzu cuddled up in my lap. It just doesn't get any better than that.

Stayed by the woodstove with a pot roast simmering in the oven and a glass of red wine in hand

After shoveling snow in -20 wind chill weather, there was nothing better than getting toasty warm in bed. Then start the process all over again after 12 inches of snow.

we sat by the fireplace to stay extra warm. Bundled up in my snowsuit to go outside. That is all when I wasnt using a hairdryer to unfreeze my inside pipes!

Where I grew up, there would be a week around New Year's where the HIGH for the entire week was -40. (F and C agree at that point). If you had LPG you would have at least one night where it would take careful use of a bernzomatic to go thaw it out as it would get to -61 and liquefy so your furnace wouldn't work... I remember -200f windchill; they finally decided when I was in 4th grade that sending the elementary kids out in that for recess (you had to have a scarf, hat and mittens) was too much so we got to use one of the gyms...

Having a blizzard which went for 3-4 days and dumped at least 3' of snow and the high during that was about -35f, putting a spike in your roof so you could tie off and scrape the snow off your roof (45 degree angle mind you) every 8-12 hours so your rafters didn't collapse...

And it wasn't International Falls, and we were in the lower 48 and it wasn't near the Lakes or in the Mountains.

Anyways; we were seeing single digit lows and I curled up on my RMH and fed it or worked in the area and kept feeding it to warm it up and let it radiate at the rest of the house... the exhaust mass transfer bench is totally the only way to toast IF you don't have a trip to Puerto Rico for business....

A small section of my greenhouse. Go in there and bake my joints and putter with my greens and my blooms and wish I was elsewhere when the heat bill comes.

Go outside for snow fun!

Having a little one under 6 months, we try to stay snuggled up on the couch inside when it's this cold! Made homemade soup and watched movies under a pile of warm blankets.

"Polar Vortex" lol what a crock. It's January and it's cold, so what? Nothing like the media creating "news" and people being gullible enough to eat it up. Oh, by the way I live in Northern Maine and yea, it was cold and we dealt with it like we always do, a fire in the wood stove and NO TV OR MEDIA!

I got into my car (thank goodness for a heated garage), and drove 35 miles to work in -30 to -50 temps. Halfway through my shift, I went out, started up my trusty Ford & let it run for 20 minutes. Before I left the hospital, I repeated this, and drove home arriving there at approx. 1:00 a.m., to pull back into the heated garage. Next day....REPEAT. Between this, I got up close and personal with my new electric blanket I got for Christmas!!

I live in a part of Canada where the so called "polar vortex" temperatures are normal winter temps that happen every year, and that we had endured for much of December before these same temps became news elsewhere. But I get that it's tough when you aren't prepared for extreme cold. It's all about dressing properly. Nothing beats natural down for warmth. When I first moved here I bought a long down filled parka, cost $400 which took my breath away to pay that much for a coat, but seven years later I still have that coat and I walk to work, year round, even in the -30s.

Standup Paddling here in Honolulu, but it sounds like good old fashioned Winter (growing up in Vermont) back on the Mainland.

I live in Wisconsin, might as well be in Alaska! I actually went to the spa in Wisconsin Dells with my husband, believe it or not we sat OUTSIDE in the hot tub and drank coffee in our robes around the fire OUTSIDE! It was a blast and very relaxing even though it was -5 with wind chills in the negative 30's! I do not know how but it felt warm until I realized my toes were a little numb!

I voted "Get cozy by the fireplace." I guess it depends on the age. If I were in my 20's I sure would vote for "Go outside for snow fun!" :)

I stayed by the fireplace as much as possible, curled up with some cozy blankets! I did have horses to feed in the miserable -8 degree weather, morning and evening, so I stayed as cozy as possible with down ski pants, jacket, etc. and I drank lots of hot tea and cocoa.

In the mid 80's, at my northern college, if it was dead still wind; I could and often did walk from the building I usually lived in (major and space there) across the sidewalk/lawn, across the street, and across another sidewalk on lawn into the student union. In a teeshirt and jeans, at -30f. Arms at side and not arms crossed to preserve BTU's. Freak everyone out. It did take about an hour to thaw out enough to want to make the trip back, but. So worth playing with minds doing that. It could be sprinkling snow too, that just added to the jaw dropping. Hehehe. They did have one or two days a year classes called because of that in-famous -200 windchill too. These days I'm a lot less cold tolerant!

Move to the South!

@Leslie Savannah Designs, you are living my dream :)

Because we live on one of the Great Lakes, we stayed inside and cozied up to our fireplace. Being outside was dangerous, frozen skin in minutes. Pretty to look at though!

by watching it on TV, from Florida.

I stayed inside. Got a cold and I had fun with Houzz. I still have fun.

watched in horror from New Orleans with a warm bowl of gumbo

lots of layers, and homemade soup

Live in the South? I do! And it was colder here than in the Adirondacks where my brother in law lives, colder than the Rockies where my other brother in law is and colder even than in Anchorage-where my husband was when our pipes froze. I got them thawed before any damage was done, thank goodness. I never want to see 0 degrees again!
P.S. I'm spoiled. I grew up in San Diego.

@Laurence Tillett, LOLLL I actually chuckled.

@raineycarole: I live in Tennessee and everything froze! Unbelievable!

I wish!! We had temps of 44degrees and 60 odd houses went up in flames.

Live in Los Angeles. Best way to stay warm during "cold spells". We broke a heat record today in Burbank 85 degrees.

When I heard what was coming I packed my car, grabbed my dog and headed to my winter home on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and watched it on the weather channel on my patio!

All of the above options... and, finally got the giant Christmas tree down and out.

WE live in Ontario and are used to the cold. WE have a wood stove and a propane fireplace both of which I am thankful. I made soup and muffins as comfort foods. My husband worked outside all of his life so enjoyed going out to shovel snow so we could get to the hottub. I went outside to take pictures of nature's beauty.

We lost electricity for 6 days over Christmas. No power, no internet, and in the rural area, no power means no water from the well, either. Neither did we have propane. Got really annoyed at radio stations saying to tune into their websites for updates. hello!!! Wore multiple layers. Closed up some of our rooms, moved mattress into the living room; had some methyl hydrate for boiling water for tea/coffee, heating soup. Filled jugs w/water from local store - kind owner let us do it for free. After 3 days & down to 3c/ 37f in the house & it being apparent we weren't going to get power back on anytime soon, we were able to buy a generator - let there be light! Had to buy gas daily for the generator but at least we could use our portable heaters. Got the house up to 14c/57f. by the time the power came back on. One memorable Christmas!

One memorable Christmas indeed!!! Hope you are all well now and you can laugh about it. This is something to tell your grand children. Few years ago, we had an ice storm, our section of the city were really really lucky, we lack electricity for about 5 hours during one night. Some were out of electricity for more than a month! Can you imagine!!

There were lots of pluses. For instance - a beautiful pink/rose sunrise reflecting and filtered through the solid ice on the trees. The nice guy who lent us a big jug and let us fill it for nothing every day, the work crews from around Ontario, who gave up Christmas with their families, to come to our area to cut all the fallen trees so that we could eventually get power. And, other than cold, we were healthy. In spite of all that, I cannot imagine being without power for longer;-)

We piled extra blankets on the bed. I wore my robe to bed! I had to be pulled out of bed by my hubby (who never met a cold day he didn't love) to pull the kids out of their beds to get them ready for school. If it wasn't for the grandkids, I'd be in hibernation now....

CONGRATULATIONS to @leahhetherington for winning a pair of Houzz slippers! If you missed out on this one, you still have a chance to get your comments into our Remodel poll!
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/poll-remodeling-must-dos-dsvw-vd~820401

Round one of polar vortex forced us to replace a broken furnace in minus 35 degrees. We're currently in round two, cuddling up with our yellow lab, Jack, making soup, weaving and reading books.

The bed or the snow.

sooo NICE to read this thread when it's 108 degrees here. can't wait til Winter!!!