Shania Twain Gets Warmed Up to Write New Songs

In a quest to stir her creative writing juices -- and to warm up! -- Shania Twain left behind the frigid, 3-degree weather of Timmins, Ontario, and flew to the Caribbean, where the temps are hovering around 78 degrees.

"I'm writing you from the Caribbean where I'm warming up after a cold stretch in Canada during the holidays," Shania shares on her website. "The sunny weather gets me into writing mode. Many of the songs from 'The Woman In Me' and 'Come on Over' were written in the tropics, so it's a good place for me to be creative."

Shania also includes a video clip, giving fans a peek at some of her holiday time spent with family at home, including playing covers of a few of her favorite songs by a roaring fire. Shania put the montage together from footage shot by boyfriend, Frederic Thiebaud.

"There were many highlights," the superstar writes of the holiday season, "but the key ones were sitting by the tree singing old songs with family, hanging around in comfy clothes and doing nothing but enjoying a relaxing evening by the fire. It was cold and snowy outside, warm and cozy inside. My cousin Kenny and I kicked a few songs around as we tried to remember how they went. The jamming is pretty rough, but real ... and I thought you would appreciate the authenticity of it, even if it is poor home quality."

During some of the footage shot by Fred, fans are given a humorous little glimpse of the two of them bantering, Fred's French-accented voice can be heard behind the camera as Shania laughs about her cravings for donuts and popcorn, and her 'blotchy skin.'

In her letter, Shania recalls the thrill of her "once-in-a-lifetime experience" of carrying the Olympic torch, and confesses that she was also worried she might run out of breath running!

"I was worried about the length of the run as I didn't want to embarrass myself by arriving at the cauldron out of breath," she writes. "It turned out we were ahead of schedule, and I was asked to take my time and even stop periodically so I didn't get to the cauldron too early.

"When Eja [Shania's 8-year-old son, who's seen in the above clip as she sings 'In the Ghetto'] saw me after the run, he said, 'Mom, it's called an Olympic torch run because you are supposed to RUN not WALK!' The temperatures were pretty low, so running the whole way would probably have, ironically, kept me warmer. In any case, it was an awesome 300 meters, and I will cherish the honor forever!"

Other highlights of Shania's letter include her writing about interviewing Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah of Jordan during Shania's guest-hosting segment of Canadian radio show, 'The Current,' and her work with the Canadian Red Cross to raise money for a program created to help educate underprivileged families about the prevention of child neglect and abuse. Shania has personally created a program called 'Shania Kids Can,' information about which can also be found on her website.