5 Ways To Love Winter

(even as it continues longer than we may want)

Historically, I have decided that winter should stop at the end of January. It’s usefulness has completely played itself out by then for me at that time and from February onward I cast a groan at each snowflake on the weather app and chosen to wear my ballet flats despite inches on the ground. And you know what that denial got me: Nothing. The complaints of winter? Didn’t make it end faster.

I’m a four seasons girl — I love them all and it was time for me to start loving winter completely too.

Dress for the weather. The fact that this is number 1 is both annoying to me and necessary. Whenever I’m complaining about winter I have to recognize that I have not dressed for the weather. OF COURSE this makes sense and yet I often leave the house without a hat on or in shoes that don’t allow me to traverse the snowy icy path without landing on my behind.
Make some soup and serve it in a mug. Bowls of soup are okay and all but fill a mug with soup and suddenly it is perfectly appropriate to have it a distance close enough to your face that it doesn’t drip! AND you get to sip the hot steamy broth at the end. MUGS people! GET ON BOARD.
Enjoy a roaring crackling fire. Visually, I love a fire but the real pleasure for me comes in the form of the noise and while the fireplace could be burning 24/7 I prefer the benefit from Noisli providing me the crackling fire. I have no fear of burning down the house and no clean up.
Get your favorite blanket. This falls in the category of 2% improvement for me but a really worthy one. Don’t mess around with being cold on the couch, don’t settle for the blanket that’s out. Seek your FAVORITE one. ENJOY the snuggle. Don’t have one? Give yourself permission to GET one that feels luxurious and cozy and everything a blanket should be for you.
Mock-Snow-Days. When you were a kid glued to the tv when it had snowed to see if you could be SO lucky as to have a snow day you knew how to enjoy winter. While you may have the appearance of being a grown-up I assure you that snow-day happy kid still lives within you. Grab a post-it note or a scrap of paper and write down the things you did on snow-days as a kid. Now make a point to do those things before the end of winter. Maybe you declare a snow-day, or maybe you just say the next 15 minutes is a snow-day where the power has flickered off and the timing is perfect because you have the perfect cup of cocoa in your hands, maybe you gear all up and you go sledding (it’s so fun, seriously, if you haven’t sledded as an adult you are totally missing out), or you setup a marathon of movies with popcorn, or you bust out Monopoly and you create an empire. The more you can tap into the joy of your childhood the more joy you will have in adulthood.

Do you have one to add? Head to the comments I’d love to hear how you continue to LOVE on winter!

Originally published at medium.com