Winter is here and it is picking up some steam. By this time of the season it can be easy to remember all the reasons you wished spring were right around the corner. Instead, we’d like to focus on what it is we love about winter. So, Wickeds, what are your favorite things about this time of year?
Liz: Let’s face it – January through March can be tough, especially if you’re not a cold weather girl (like me). But I do love that January is about new beginnings, making resolutions and renewing focus for the year ahead. There’s something about the first month of the year, with 12 glorious months stretching out before you and all the time in the world to accomplish great things (at least it feels that way!). I’m trying to really embrace the winter doldrums and use them as an excuse to put my jammies on early, drink ancient Chinese tea and set up for a great year ahead.
Jessie: I love the birds flocking to the feeder outside my kitchen window. I love seeing the bones of the landscape silhouetted against the snow. I love that the best use of winter is either curling up with a good book or writing a new one. And knitting. I love knitting with wool and it is never too hot to do that in the winter.
Edith: When the snow is fresh and the sun shines, I pull my wool knee socks up
over my jeans, click into my cross-country skis, and head out for the fields, the woods, the lake. I stride and glide, breathing clean cold air, getting my heart rate up and my happy quotient, too, under all that natural sunlight. It’s my favorite exercise. Then once I return home, I’ve earned that hot toddy or Irish coffee to warm up with, and can get wicked cozy with a mystery.
Barb: Here’s what I love, suckahs!
Just kidding. We’re headed home in two days, making the long drive with stops along the way for a cousins reunion and a few other visits. And truthfully, I do love being in our house by the fire with a cup of cocoa on a day when the snow is falling outside the windows.
Sherry: I don’t think you are kidding, Barb! I’m not enthralled with winter or being cold either. But I do love to watch Lily romp in the snow. She likes it much more than I do! And I like it when those big, giant flakes float gently down outside my window.
Julie: I’ve got nothing, especially with the bitter cold coming back. I am a public transportation person, so walking and waiting in the freezing cold is a grind. I am fairly vain, so flat hat hair and smudged makeup at 9am is pitiful. And dark when I get out of work Yeesh. January and February are an endurance test for this New Englander.
Readers: Your favorite thing about this time of year?
I like shoveling snow, and I love to stand on my deck at night and listen to the quiet of a snowfall. I used to love shoveling a path through the yard for my dog, but she is gone now. Playing with her was the most fun, even more so than with kids (because she didn’t cry when she got hit in the face with a snowball!) I live in the ‘burbs now, but when I was in western PA in the country, I loved trudging to the top of the hill and letting the snow blast me. Great memories!
Wow, Ramona! I’m impressed — I cry when a snowball hits me in the face too!
I love the quiet hush after a heavy snowfall and the way the trees look, decorated in white. Also, I love my SmartWool socks and my polar fleece Cuddl duds long underwear.
I love the trees too, Karen!
I lived much of my life in Chicago and Nebraska, and it has taken me two years in Florida to realize winter is not going to descend on me again. I do miss the hoarfrosts, when everything outside would be coated in icy white frozen snow. It was beautiful in a magical way.
I grew up in the Quad Cities Barb. I remember ice storms where we could skate on the streets! Enjoy Florida!