My Christmas tree has been down for ages and now there is a winter storm looming so it seems like a good day to share this! I used to love winter because it meant snow and that meant snow removal job and that meant extra money! But I have always loved Christmas and stubbornly held onto the festive decorations as long as possible (*cough*oncekeptthetreeupuntilMarch*cough*). Undecorating is always a sad time, especially here in the Northeast USA where winter lingers for three more months after Christmas is over and yet we don't have the twinkling Christmas lights to cheer us up.

So I have spent much time lately contemplating my plan on how to love this season of winter and not just endure until the end. Of March. Or April. Or May. Or whenever green appears next. I want to winter to be on my list of favorite things-- along with spring, summer and fall. Because I am aiming to enjoy, to savor, to delight in every moment of the life that God gives. Even in blustering, cold winter weather that He provides.

So here are some of my thoughts on Loving Winter {After Christmas is Over}

Go Outside Every Day
I have my favorite adventurous homeschooling family blogger to thank for this concept. I don't know how long ago I read her blog about getting outside every day, but this is the first year that I am taking it seriously, and trying to remove all obstacles to this getting-outside-everyday resolution. I know all the benefits (natural light! Vitamin D! fresh air! immunities! happiness!) and am using them as mental weapons to knock down the lame excuses when the thermometer dips further and further down.

My father's sensible words always echo many times over during wintertime, "There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing choices."  To translate this into my language --- wear lots of layers! And a hat! And gloves! And warm boots! Make a life where you have the extra five or ten (or twenty, if the little boy doesn't understand how to put his little thumbs in mittens yet) minutes to dress appropriately, because it will lead to an enjoyably brisk-yet-wonderful outdoor adventure.

Slow Down & Stay In
While it seems like I am writing the complete opposite of what I just said, it all makes sense when one realizes that you can't stay outside forever, even if you're dressed appropriately. And a long winter's walk is even better when looking forward to those winter evenings where darkness falls early and there's nowhere to go and nothing to do but stay in. It is those moments when gratefulness abounds. For our squeaky old cottage with the winter-insulated windows and warm slippers and furry throws that we snuggle into. For old movies to watch and instrumental music and a singing teakettle that makes steaming tea to warm our souls. After the busyness of Christmas, we need a rest. And our winter months provide the perfect solution.

Get Cozy on Purpose
I stumbled onto an article about the Danish concept of "hygge" and am so intrigued by the concept. Hygge (pronounced hoo-ga) is a Danish word that doesn't fully translate into English. It means "coziness" (or as the Brits spell it, "cosiness") and yet hygge means so much more. It is defined by some as "the absence of anything annoying or emotionally overwhelming; taking pleasure from the presence of gentle, soothing things."  It is lingering over dinner with friends. It is flickering candlelight and hot drinks. It is warm duvets and cozy sweaters. It is burrowing down and being comfortable and yes, experiencing coziness to the nth degree. Hygge is one of the reasons that Denmark is consistently voted one of the happiest countries in the world. Because in the dark, cold months, Danes are enjoying time with each other and enjoying comforts themselves instead of falling into the failing-at-New-Years-resolutions-and-therefore-going-crazy-with-self-criticism-and-in-general-being-miserable. So yes, hygge is a concept that I can (and will) embrace. Because to me, it sounds like the best parts of Christmas will be lasting until spring.
Candlelight (And Other Flames)
Candles bring warmth and movement and soft warm lighting into the cold wintertime. I adore the Christmas tree mostly because of the instant ambiance it creates. Now I am lighting a few candles before sitting down to dinner or evening quiet time (in the interest of safety, I don't light candles in a room where there isn't a responsible adult, I always keep them out of the child's reach and I extinguish them when I leave the room). I may move on to flameless candles, too, for extra safety. The flameless surprise has been how much we enjoy turning on the crackling fireplace (Yule Log) using Amazon Prime/Roku/the TV. Cue all the warm fuzzy feelings.
Cook Seasonally... Because Nobody Likes Salad When It's Zero Degrees Outside
Steaming soups so brothy and filling that your belly is full and your face is smiling. Root vegetables roasted until crispy and bursting with natural sweetness. Flash-steamed vegetables with a dash of garlic salt and olive oil and serving piping hot. Warm grain salads with savory bacon stirred in for flavor... All the delicious, delightful things that nobody wants in the summer, but taste like ambrosia and heaven and fluffy clouds during the winter. I think we tent to gravitate to warm, filling foods during the winter and yet our brains fight against it because we think, "DIET! RAW CARROTS! SALAD! ICE WATER." And then our poor conflicted bodies don't know what to eat. This year, I am planning healthy (warm) things to cook and believing that what our bodies crave is what we need.

Enjoy Time with Friends and Family
The holiday season is chock-full of gatherings with loved ones. Then we enter solitary winter mode and wonder why our happiness level dips drastically. So gather! Congregate! Party! Feast! Hygge! If you don't have an excuse to gather, make one up! Game nights, football viewing, dinner parties, appetizers and desserts, gather with a girlfriend to do home manicures, read a book aloud, try a new recipe and invite a few folks over to taste-test. Bring out the old games like Jenga and Monopoly and the tough games like Risk and the silly group games like Blurt and Charades. And if there's no time for spending time with your loved ones... get unbusy. Life is better that way.

Practice Contentment (i.e. stop looking at beach vacation pics on the internet, yo)
It's so much easier to love what you've got when you're not busy staring at what you don't. This applies to so many things in life, but whenever you see that you don't have any beach trips planned this month (nothing wrong with the occasional ocean sojourn!), there comes a building joy and delight in winter-y things. Snowflakes and fur hats and hot chocolate and icy beauty. It's a different joy than summer joy, but it is still wonderful.
Winter is lovely... I hope you enjoy discovering its delights this week!

A friendly reminder to myself - in my silly, injured state (cut my thumb doing chores and now have five stitches and a non-workable thumb) - and to all the mama friends trying to make Christmas magical for their families.. don't be a Grinch in the process.

Slow down. Take a breath. Maybe five minutes. Turn off the lights and stare at the Christmas tree. Kiss your husband (maybe twice). Remember the last funny thing your child(ren) did. Laugh out loud. Drink some tea. Forget about the commercials and self-induced anxiety of too-high expectations.

“Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before! What if Christmas, he thought, doesn't come from a store. What if Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more!”
― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!      

On my 33rd birthday, I woke to an early morning text invitation... to go hike Mount Nittany with my sister (a homeschooling mama) + her four little girls, plus their friends (also homeschoolers). It would seem that I had a choice to make -- I could do the planned birthday thing... which, truth be told, was no plan at all during the daytime hours. Because when one grows up, chores still need to be done on birthdays and the husband still goes to work and the baby still needs to eat and drink and nap all the same.

After waffling back and forth for about one minute, I decided to gallivant. Throw caution to the wind. Pack up the baby and go for a ramble in the woods. Why not? My early-November birthday coincided with one of the last warm days of autumn, and the temperature was projected to reach the mid-70s. How could I possibly stay inside during that?

Our hiking adventure began mid-morning. All the youngest people were strapped to the backs of three mamas, including my dear sweet Devereaux. It always makes me feel a little like I can do anything when hiking through the woods with a baby on me. Maybe it's the sweet taste of independence or the feeling of physical power or maybe it is simply the fact that I often wear Devereaux when outside, so in my brain, I associate it with fresh air and the shivers of wonder that come from God's creation.

Baby on back, (real) camera slung over my shoulder and we hike on.

I am so glad that I made the decision to take the camera, for I made an important discovery. The golden hour - that wonderful time of soft light and golden glow - extends to almost all day when you're in the forest. I spent most of my time looking up into the rustling trees and down into the fallen leaves and around at the varied colors of leaves still clinging to branches.

Nature was alive and beautiful and if you can't tell, I've been rereading all my favorite books from the great, descriptive authoress: L.M. Montgomery and that makes me the best mixture of sentimental and observant when it comes to experiencing nature.

We reached the first overlook after roughly 45 minutes of hiking. It was steep, but doable, but the view of Happy Valley was SO VERY WORTH the effort. The overlook was the perfect place for resting and picnicking.

Note: I love how willing kids are to ask questions, even though their curiosity required me to think deeply about the meaning of the word "pristine."



Through our little lunchtime mountaintop picnic, I focused on keeping Devereaux from eating too many leaves and wondering where he threw his teething biscuit. Also, hiking works up a good appetite!

My sister is an explorer in her own right, and she also has the privilege of owning two delightful dogs that love to explore, too. A Golden Retriever and a Bernese Mountain dog. While I keep telling myself that I WILL NOT GET A DOG YET (for a myriad of practical reasons), it doesn't keep me from enjoying some of the quality-of-life benefits to hiking with her dogs. Dogs are just downright happy about being outside which makes me happy, and (if they are well-trained, as these two are) they can be off-leash and hiking happily down the trail in front of you without disappearing, waiting at the perfect intervals for you to catch up. And last-but-not-least, having BIG dogs makes one feel safer, because even if they are nice, sweet, happy dogs... they are also madly devoted to their family, so other folks tend to approach with caution and not try any funny business.

I should stop talking about dogs, because then I'll start thinking about it too much and... I just like dogs.

We headed onward to the next overlook. It became more of a "walk" than a "hike" because we were hiking along the mountain's ridge, so it was easier to engage in conversation. Though the leaf cover was thicker on the ground and children dragged their feet in delight, so all we heard was the surprisingly loud RUSTLE RUSTLE of leaves. And even so, Devereaux fell fast asleep while on my back and napped for the next half hour or so.

They helped me by picking up interesting leaves so I could take pictures of them!

At the second overlook, we were faced with a (literal) fork in the road. A choice to be made. Would we return to the first overlook and go back the same way we came? It was shorter, but steeper--so we thought. The other choice was to go down the longer trail, which was supposed to be "rocky" but was longer so we thought less steep and easier for mamas with hiking backpacks.

We took an informal vote, but in hiking, democracy only goes so far. The dissenters were overruled by the mamas carrying little ones on their backs and we decided to head down the long way. The initial uproar was quelled by the perfectly-timed mention of what was happening after hiking: ICE CREAM! My years of enduring hours of cold snow-removal for the promise of a hot meal have taught me that there is nothing wrong with looking forward to some short-term gratification of the food variety!

The next hour was a wee bit difficult. The terrain was very rocky, surprisingly steep and also covered by many leaves, so finding good footing without losing balance was difficult. I was living in fear of tumbling down the mountainside (with a baby on my back) or at the very least, smashing my camera. Neither of those things happened... so we could assume that my fears were unfounded --- or perhaps, they just caused me to be reasonably cautious (all fear is not bad. There's a life lesson for ya!).

Eventually, the trail became a flat road and we knew that we were nearing the end. I would sum up with this; it was a glorious hike and therefore, a glorious birthday. I was reminiscing about the time that I hiked Mounte LeConte in the Great Smokies with my dad... on my 23rd birthday. So I guess I should do memorable hikes more often than once every ten years? It is a good birthday tradition.

The hiking adventure was crowned with eating a deliciously melting huge hot fudge sundae with chocolate-marshmallow ice cream in the afternoon sunlight. Happy birthday to me!