Jack Frost was not happy. It was December 31st and he really wanted to nibble at someone’s nose, or ears or even their toes, but no such luck awaited him. Every time it turned cold, he would get excited, but than along would come the rain, driving the temperature up and laughing hysterically as Jack evaporated to a mist. He had complained to Mother Nature but she said it was all due to global warming and that he must get use to it.

“Global warming indeed”, he fumed, certain that it was all in the mind. “ I wish I could get a nibble at Al Gore’s toes … he started it all you know”. Of course there was also all that hot air coming from Washington and some other world capitals … no wonder the ice caps were melting!

Jack sighed remembering the good old days before most people had central heating. He laughed aloud, remembering the fun he had making the children’s noses all red and how he would watch for their toes to poke out from under all the blankets their mothers had piled on them. What was really hilarious though, was how they would jump and dance in the mornings when their feet first touched the cold floor, and how they would grab their clothes and run for the kitchen, the only warm spot in the house to get dressed. Now it was so warm in the bedrooms that kids slept with just one blanket, and he had to be content to watch from the window ledge outside, not daring to enter the bedroom.

Jack perked up a little, knowing that his friends, January, February and March would soon be here. He knew he could count on them to provide at least a little fun, but in recent years, even they had complained of a warm glow in their heart. He and the rest of the Frost family had started moving further and further north each winter, and his dad was beginning to worry that they might be moving in on Santa Claus’s territory.

There was always the South Pole of course, but there had been no interaction with that branch of the family for eons. There was a time when the whole family were as one, but then a dispute arose between two brothers … it seems that they both liked the same icicle. The others in the family sided with one or the other of the brothers, and everyone stopped speaking and soon they were a world apart.

The new year would soon be here and like others, he wondered what 2012 would bring. Maybe it was time for the Frost family to try the new technology that humans were using so effectively. Jack was sure he could have a lot of fun in cyberspace, but his father was not convinced and his grandfather was dead set against it. Oh well, maybe the Mayans had it right after all, and this would the the last year that he would be nibbling at anyone’s extremities. Oh! It was snowing! The New year had arrived and the temperature was already dropping. Good ole’ January hadn’t forgotten him after all.