I don't know about you all, but winter is full of so many things to love. Here are some of my own favorites!

• Hot chocolate with marshmallows – hot chocolatey goodness in one of my favorite coffee mugs with balls of sugary fluff. Delicious!
• Warm, fuzzy socks – every year I ask for these not only because I love them, but I also live in Michigan where the lake effect snow and winds engulf us during the winter months (which is actually longer than the Roman calendar’s “winter”).
• Snow-covered tree branches – if you have ever seen them you probably know what I mean. You can despise the blustery cold of winter all you want, but the beauty of snow-covered branches is unmistakable.
• Wrapping presents – it’s always been one of my favorite winter past-times. I love wrapping presents as much as I love un-wrapping them. Actually…I might love wrapping presents even more. Shh….
• Giving presents to others – seeing your loved ones’ faces when they open something you chose for them is a wondrous thing. I can’t wait to see how everyone reacts when they open the presents my dear fiancé and I have gifted them.
• Holiday music – I absolutely love being in my car with the heat on and holiday music blasting. I often receive funny looks because I’m belting at the top of my lungs in my car, but it doesn’t matter because I dare say no one can subdue my love for the festivity of music.
• Scarves – most people that really know me know I’m 100% obsessed with scarves, and winter is scarf season! I can whip out all of my scarves and wear them proudly.
• Snow days – I’m a 23, almost 24, year old who still gets excited when the kids in my county get snow days. There is just something magical about hearing that school gets canceled. It brings me back to my school days, and the excitement I’d get when my mom would enter my room to tell me that there was a snow day. Hot cocoa, cartoons, and pajamas all day ensued, and it was glorious.
• Neighborhood decorations– I love driving around the city, going neighborhood to neighborhood, and looking at all of the Christmas/Winter decorations out. It’s one of those traditions from my childhood that I’ve taken with me.
• Rosy cheeks – I don’t know about you, but I always have super rosy cheeks when I come indoors from the icy chill of winter.
• Sledding – growing up I had a love/hate relationship with sledding, but despite the fact that I was always a little petrified of going downhill I enjoyed myself. Now it’s something I can’t wait to do with my children in the future.
• Holiday get-togethers – I have an enormous family. My mom and dad are divorced. My dad’s parents are divorced. My step-mom’s parents are divorced. My little sister is actually my half-sister, and I still call her grandparents my own despite the fact that her father and our mom are divorced as well. And that’s just MY family! My fiancé’s family is gigantic as well. There is never a lacking for family get-togethers when holidays roll around. We’ve been getting better as the years go by with juggling the festivities.
• Flannels – that’s not just flannel shirts, but flannel pajamas and flannel bed sheet sets as well. I love the feeling of flannel. It’s warm and cozy, and it is one of the comforts I look forward to every year.
• Christmas trees – when the Christmas tree is the only light on in a room…it’s a beautiful sight indeed. Decorating the tree has always been a fun time for me because in my family we always put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, and we always played Christmas music. Kenny Rogers and Bing Crosby were my favorites, and still are to this day.
• White Christmas – no, I’m not talking about having a white Christmas, although I always look forward to having one. I’m talking about the movie “White Christmas”. It’s my favorite holiday movie! Rosemary Clooney, Vera Ellen, Bing Crosby, and Danny Kaye filled my childhood with a love for what I’ll call “real” music. Classic, timeless, and breathtakingly beautiful were their harmonies and melodies. That’s not the only holiday movie I like, though. They all have a specialness to them, but “White Christmas” is my personal favorite.
• Reading – I love reading. Year ‘round. All the time. However, there is something extremely special about curling up with a good book under a blanket with a steaming cup of hot cocoa, hot tea, or coffee warming your belly.
• Boots – this kind of goes along with scarves, but my obsession for boots is ridiculous as well. I’m more of a combat-type boot person versus an “Ugg-style” boot person. I even have a pair of rain boots, that I got in the kids section, that are in the combat-boot style! They’re my favorite. I also love the tall suede style boots; despite my short stature.
• Cuddling – yes, I can cuddle all year ‘round. I like cuddling all year ‘round. Cuddling during the winter for warmth is something special. You get engulfed in each other; hoping to combine your warmth with your lover’s.
• Food – don’t even get me started about all of the wonderful foods and drinks that seem to pop out during the winter months. Hot soups, turkey, honey-glazed ham, buttery mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie (yes, go ahead and tease me for my “basic white girl” status), and egg nog… I can’t get enough of it. My mouth is watering just from typing the foods out.
• My birthday – I celebrate my 24th birthday in January, and it's the mark of the year of some of the biggest changes of my life. I'm becoming a Mrs in September!
• Holidays – I’m not just talking about Christmas. As many know, I’m not a practicing Christian. Heck, I don’t regard myself as Christian, or religious for that matter, at all. That being said, I respect all religions and their rights to practice their holidays in this fair country I live in. I have friends who light candles on their menorah. I have friends who count on an advent calendar. I have friends who go to mass on the night of Christmas Eve. I have friends who practice Yule and light candles upon their Yule log. I love everyone equally, and it is my hope that I can pass on the message throughout my life for people to do the same.
  
  
  

What are your favorite things about winter? :) Leave them in the comments below!