Choosing my words carefully

I live in San Diego where the weather is warm and the sun is out and I can wear flip-flops 300 days out of the year. Most all of my friends and family are on the East coast, where they were just hit with feet of snow and will likely suffer through at least 2 more months of below-freezing temperatures. This makes for awkward conversation when my mom calls and asks me what I'm doing. Because I don't want to lie to her, but at the same time, I don't want to tell her that I'm sitting outside sipping champagne and enjoying brunch on the patio of a nice restaurant.... that would just be mean. So how do I handle this situation? By downplaying it:

Mom: Hi babe, how are you? What are you doing?
Me: I'm good. We're... uh... sitting outside, nothing special.
Mom: How is the weather? Is it nice out?
Me: Uh, yeah. It's in the 70's. Which is a nice change, because it rained here all last week.
Mom: The 70's? Really? Ugh. It's 34 and snowing here. AGAIN.
Me: Aw man, that sucks. But at least the snow is pretty, right?
Mom: Yeah, until I have to dig my car out of it.
Me: Uh... well....
Mom: So what's the temperature there?
Me: Um.. 72 I think?
Mom: Aaahh!! Are you wearing a t-shirt and flip-flops?
Me: Yeah, but it's the first time I've gone out without a sweater in weeks.
Mom: A sweater?! I've been wearing my winter coat for 3 months already! I am so jealous.

And so it goes. No matter how much I downplay it, my mother will always assert that I have it better out here than she has it back home. Until I remind her that she gets to snuggle up with this every night: