Groundhog Day

I *love* Groundhog Day.

BTW: isn't this groundhog cute?

I really do not know why, but this holiday has fascinated me for longer than I can remember. So, when I realized a local wild-life park had their own version of Phil, I decided that each year I would make the supreme sacrifice and get up at 6am to celebrate Groundhog Day in person. And drag two kids with me.

Some local folks were more optimistic for a warm prognosis.

Our prognosticator is a female woodchuck (aka groundhog - they are the same animal) named Woody. And she has a slightly different take on predicting the upcoming spring: Woody is placed in her stump and then has 30 seconds to come out of her stump if she believes it will be an early spring.

This year, in the 15 degree weather, after a week of temps in the single digits or lower, Woody did not even think of coming anywhere near the hole in her stump. In earlier years she has hovered around the entrance and looked out, but this year she hunkered down as far away from the hole in the stump as she could possible get! I'd take that as a huge sign that winter will be with us for a while still.