Why I Love Winter (& What I'm Hoping to Do During This One)

Several posts ago, I made the following rather shocking admission, which I know puts me on the fringe of decent society:

I am not a summer person.

And then, I plunged ahead with this personal bombshell, which I understand by most people's standards launches me squarely into the category of "weird to the point of being socially scary":

I love winter.

Yes, really. No, I am not kidding.

At the time, the reason I love winter was a subject for another post with a working title of "Why I Love Winter."

Now that everyone is putting up their "this many days till spring" countdowns, let's get on with it.

First I must clarify that I am not writing this while I sit on my Hawaiian lanai and sip a pina colada. I am writing this from my Midwest sitting room. We do get some snow here, although not nearly as much as I'd like or as much as most people who live here seem to think we do.

When I say "I love winter," I am absolutely saying "I love snow." As much as possible.

(Note that I am not saying I love driving in snow. If you're thinking, "Listen, honey, I'd love winter too if I didn't have to drive in it," I readily concede your legitimate point.)

If you're still reading this far in, I suspect it's for one of three possible reasons: 1)you are my mother (thanks, Mom); 2)you are one of the, what, three other adults in existence who also likes winter and lives in a state that gets it; 3)you are horrified and/or perplexed by my views on this subject but are sticking around to confirm your suspicion that I am, in fact, insane.

If #3 applies to you, I imagine you would give me a little leeway if I said the reason for my frozen devotion is that I am an avid skier or snowboarder (as if...girls, quit laughing at your mother) or snowshoer. While it is true that I tried skiing once and enjoyed it, I have a daughter with orthodontia and the bills to prove it, and thus I do not ski or take part in any number of other expensive hobbies. I do like to ice skate, and I exercise outside every morning even in a blizzard, but outdoor enjoyment is not the reason I love winter.

I love winter because I am a homebody introvert and few things thrill me more than when something I am supposed to leave the house to do gets cancelled and so I am required to stay home. (Maybe the weather will get so bad the governor of our state will actually ORDER me to stay home!)

This does not happen in the summer. There is no hope of my being able to spend an unexpected evening by a roaring fire in July. There is no chance in May or August or even October that the school event we have to attend will suddenly appear at the bottom of our TV screen on a list of cancellations due to weather and my little family will instead spend the evening playing "Beat the Parents" while we watch a movie and eat chocolate-chip cookies. 

I love winter because I am all about cozy, and I am all about comfort. Just let me put on a sweater and eat a bowl of homemade chicken noodle soup. I am not the slightest bit comforted by shorts and salads.

I love winter because if you are curled up under a blanket on the couch on a Sunday afternoon in, say, February, and someone finds out about it, they think you are just being seasonally appropriate. Whereas if you do the same thing in the spring and someone finds out about it, they frown disapprovingly and suggest that perhaps you should be outside gardening.

And so, dear winter, I remain your faithful (if rather lonely) fan. And while you are here, will you please allow me to at least hope that I might...

1. Wear fleece. And hoodies. And fleece hoodies.

2. Drink many cups of hot chocolate. My favorite quick-mix version is 1/2 a packet of Swiss Miss Dark Chocolate with 1/2 a packet of Swiss Miss No-Sugar Added.

3. Watch for the National Weather Service to issue a Winter Storm Warning for our county.

4. Get a school-cancellation text message and have the unparalleled joy of waking my girls up to tell them they get to go back to sleep.

5. Get a night-before school-cancellation text message and have the thrill of staying up late drinking hot chocolate (see #2) and watching movies with my daughters. (Their father, alas, almost never gets a snow day. So we put him to bed and then watch girly flicks while we feel a little guilyy. But only a little.)

6. Watch the "Little House on the Prairie" TV series episode where the entire extended Ingalls family gets snowed in at Pa's place on Christmas Eve. Here, I will make an exception and watch a Christmas-something after Christmas.

7. Watch/listen to The Piano Guys' "Let It Go," which they intertwine with, appropriately enough, Vivaldi's "Winter."

8. Wear fuzzy socks. If they have those gripper dots on the bottom, so much the better.


9. Sit by a fire in the fireplace and watch snow fall gently outside the picture window. 

10. Ice skate on my parents' pond. Were I to use this pond in the summer, I would have to wear a bathing suit and, afterwards, drink a root beer float, neither of which I like. In my beloved winter, I get to wear many layers and, afterwards, drink hot chocolate (a recurring theme). 

11. Put fuzzy sheets on the bed.

12. Burn possibly five more calories per hour exercising outside in the cold weather than I do any other time of year.

13. Not have to paint my toes.

14. Make pot roast. This recipe is comfort in a Dutch oven, mama.

15. Respect the wisdom of the Creator. "God's voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things. He says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth' " (Job 37:5-7). Say what you will about winter, but I, for one, am not arguing with the Almighty.

If you've read this far and you're not my mom and you're not convinced I'm crazy and you do happen to at least appreciate winter, I'd love to hear from you! Even better, add something to this list. I'll be drinking my hot chocolate and waiting to see what you come up with.

Previous posts that have something to do with this one:
What I'm Hoping To Do This Summer
Grumpy Gardener Girl
31 Things I Love (That You Might Love, Too)

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