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Are you enjoying the cold weather?

Personally, I prefer summer to winter, but I don't want to complain about the cold for three, four months straight, so we're going to make the best of it.

So here I am recording one about winter and Christmas.

Following the same style, I'll talk about vocabulary related to this season.

Learning weather related vocabulary is really helpful in your English learning journey

Because, and I've probably said this before, it will always be part of small talk and no matter whom you're speaking with, it somehow always comes up in the conversation.

When it's warm, we talk about taking advantage of the weather outside and fitting lots of activities into our day.

We talk about what the weather was like during the vacation we just came back from.

When it's cold, we probably do a little bit more complaining, but somehow we start with the temperature outside, then move on to the clothes we need for the season.

Then maybe the high electric bills, road conditions and maybe even the food we cook to keep warm.

So to help you get comfortable with those types of conversations, let's talk about the weather.

First, Americans love to say it's freezing or I'm freezing, even when the temperature is not technically at freezing levels.

Frigid and chilly are two other words that are used in the same sense.

Frigid sounds like refrigerator.

And what does a refrigerator do?

The last episode talked about Latin roots and English words.

And this is one of them.

To refrigerate is directly borrowed from refrigerare, to make cool.

To complete the picture, your refrigerator also keeps things frozen in the freezer.

Depending on your appliance type, the freezer may be on the top part or the bottom part of your refrigerator.

Actually, no, I'm not done with the fridge example.

In the freezer you will find ice.

Not ice cream, the delicious dessert, although that would be found in the freezer.

I mean the ice cubes used for drinks sitting in the ice cube tray.

Ice on the roads could make for a dangerous driving situation.

Someone may ask you to describe the situation on the roads in the middle of winter and you could say that the roads are icy.

There is something we call black ice.

and clear layer of ice on a road, which means you can still see the road under the ice and you may not know the ice is there, which is what makes it even more dangerous to drive on.

When you take a walk outside a day or two after a snowstorm, you'll see icicles hanging from the edges of buildings.

Kids like to pull them off and play with them, but icicles can be hard and sharp, so playing with them can also be dangerous.

When it snows, delicate snowflakes fall from the sky.

If the snow is light, we also describe it as flurries.

Snow flurries usually don't stick to the ground because the temperatures are not

So when your husband or wife asks you to look out the window in the morning and describe the snowfall, you could just say, not much snow, just a dusting.

White, icy coating on cars or grass.

Once the winter weather conditions are right, we can get a proper snowstorm.

A major snowstorm with strong winds can also be called a blizzard.

The stronger the blizzard, the more dangerous the road conditions are.

Back then, when we used to get a lot of snow each winter, schools would close for a day or two to allow the neighborhoods to clean out the snow on the roads, shovel out the cars on streets and driveways and ensure everyone can commute safely.

And once the snow starts melting, we get slush.

Back in the 90s, before schools had their own websites and social media, we would wake up in the morning to watch the local morning news and watch the bottom of the screen.

Opóźnione otwarcie oznaczało, że szkoły otworzą się trochę później, na przykład o 10.00, a nie o 8.00.

My cousin Paweł and I would take our snow shovels out on a day when the snow was fresh and we would go around our neighborhood knocking on doors asking people if they would want us to shovel their driveways and walkways around the house in exchange for payment.

We happily worked hard for our first honestly earned dollars.

So when they say that it's the working class that moves to America, they are not wrong.

I would rather believe and tell myself that that was the start of my entrepreneurial endeavors.

I don't know whether this December will bring enough snow to put young children to work, but there is something beautiful, magic and nostalgic about a white Christmas.

But what is it that makes Christmas magical?

Są to kandle, kukurydze z zębarkami, gorący koko, a w domu jedynie gra na telewizorze.

Są to godziny i godziny little fire place burning and you can listen to the crackling fire or pick one with music in the background.

It does the trick of getting you into a festive mood.

I think most of our special memories are simple.

For example, I have one of me by myself making a paper Christmas garland for our tree.

The garland is the long decorative strand that you wrap around your tree.

And the one that they teach kids to make at school is the one with colorful paper links.

And speaking of decorating trees, anything you hang on the tree is called an ornament.

Whether it's a traditional glass ball, or a little picture, or something handmade, it's all called the same thing, an ornament.

Of course, for small children, what makes Christmas magical is...

Santa Claus, Santa's elves working in Santa's workshop, the reindeer leading the sleigh and dropping off presents for all the little boys and girls on the nice list.

I can't make a Christmas episode though without naming all of Santa's reindeer.

The song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer starts off with...

But then once it got dark and foggy outside and they needed an extra light or someone with a bright red nose, they wanted Rudolf's help.

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree or Jingle Bell Rock or Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.

But when it comes to movies, any American Christmas movie that pops into mind is a classic and we watch them every single year.

Every time we read a classic book, we watched the movie after.

Anytime there was a holiday coming up, we watched a movie related to the season.

family-friendly movie available on a cassette tape in the early 2000s was played in school.

I can't tell you how many times I had to watch The Santa Clause with Tim Allen or Jack Frost with Michael Keaton or Elf with Will Ferrell.

But the true

Top American Christmas Classics are Home Alone A Christmas Story National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation Scrooged

A Charlie Brown Christmas and Miracle on 34th Street.

Whether you keep true to religious Christmas traditions and go to Midnight Mass, or you prefer to make it all about Santa Claus and family hangouts, it's up to you to make it special for the next generation.

My Christmas is a little bit of both.

I'm going to be traveling to visit my in-laws and we'll be back in January with more energy and more episodes.

So, out with the old, in with the new.

If you have any questions about this episode or any other episode, please write me an email at viola-at-naturalne-angielski.com Until next time!