Winter's Arrival

The days of waking up to sunshine and seeing 9pm before the sun goes goes down are long gone. The days of green leaves, warm breezes and open lakes are gone. Summer and now Fall have passed. As much as I have tried to ignore it, Winter is here.

It's no secret around these parts that I don't have a good relationship with Winter. That's putting it mildly. Instead, I'm one of those people that love Minnesota during the other three seasons, but the minute the weather turns bone-chilling cold, I bemoan the fact I live here, and wish desperately that I called Florida or Hawaii my home. The cold weather, the short hours of daylight and the long, snowy months of Winter are enough to make me want to hibernate until April.

I'm going to try though. I'm going to try to find my inner optimist and to look on the bright side as Winter smacks us over the head. We had our first real snowfall Saturday and while it was only a dusting, maybe ½ inch of snow, it signaled the official beginning of our Winter season. Instead of wishing for warm weather, swimable lakes and the ability to wear TOMS without catching hypothermia, I'm going to think positively.

Winter brings the opportunity for:

*Hot tub weather

*Scarves

*Boots

*Long movie marathons without feeling guilty for not being outside

*An excuse to drive slowly and carefully [Heyyy, give me a break! It's snowy and slippery out, it's ok I'm driving 15 miles an hour!]

*Pale skin. In the winter, everyone looks like fair-skinned me!

*Winter Wonderlands. I'm taking about when it snows large, wet flakes and they cling to all the bare tree branches, making everything look like a fairyland.

*Hats, mittens and big, puffy Clark Griswold winter coats.

See, winter isn't that bad. Just remind me I said that when it's February and I am aching for Spring and green growth ok?