The cold does bother me.

This winter, I bought myself a sweatshirt that says "The cold never bothered me anyway, just kidding, I hate winter." My evolving relationship with winter is a thing going on in my life right now. Growing up in South Florida, I imagined winter to be like a magical fairy-land. The idea of snow and wearing boots and sweaters and having a fire in a fireplace and drinking hot chocolate were so romantic to me. I could not wait to get to the land of the north and live the life of coziness and adventure and lack of sweatiness I imagined.

So I went to college in Chicago. The first few years it could not get cold enough for me in winter, though I was a little challenged by what to do with a scarf, how to deal with hat hair, and not liking frozen nose hairs on especially cold days. But year by year winter got a little less exciting and a little more annoying. It was hard to see people when everyone was huddled inside, it is boring to wear a coat every.single.day. for months, and arghhh static electricity and dry hands.

I landed in NC, which by Florida standards, is still the frigid north--it SNOWS up here after all. But the thing about this brand of winter, is that while it is not so nostril freezing cold, it winds up being dreary and brown and gray with less of the excitement of intense winter. Thankfully it only lasts about four months. But still, I have now learned that it is indeed depressing to deal with gray skies for months, and that truly, you get sick more when it's cold. I didn't believe that for years, but now especially as the mother of three small children, illness is my absolute biggest complaint with winter. If my kids get sick, it also means I don't sleep and worry and can't go out. So it's like I get sick four times as much as I used to. If I am the one actually sick, I can't rest either. So. Yuck. For dreariness, illness, isolation, and lack of sleep.

But then, every now and then in winter it snows, and as I suspected all along, it is absolutely magical.

Praise the Lord I am writing this in the early, life affirming days of Spring and it will be a while 'til we deal with all grumpy old winter again. But here was a happy, snowy day. Maybe one day I will be able to appreciate the rest of it too.