Winter always has been my least favorite season. Yet I may be mellowing with age. It certainly helps to live in southern Missouri where the harsh, snowy winters of my childhood and youth in Iowa are a distant memory (I didn’t care much for the six winters I spent in suburban Chicago in the 1990s either).
Maybe I’m more mature, or less of a wimp, or just more appreciative, but I’ve come to not dread winter as much as in the past. In fact, the season has unique benefits.
Food has a lot to do with the upside of winter. There’s the stuff that really tastes good on those crisp days: chili, oatmeal, hot chocolate, hot tea. There’s the holiday baking, the homemade fruitcake that’s inappropriate any other time.
There’s also the homey atmosphere unlike the rest of the year: a blazing fire in the fireplace; scented candles throughout the house; sweaters that keep you warm.
Of course winter provides an escape from the drudgery of summer: oppressive heat that makes it uncomfortable to be outside; mowing the yard and pulling weeds every week; avoiding skunks on my morning walk; dealing with the threat of mosquitoes, ticks and poison ivy; suffering through allergies that make it difficult to breathe.
Perhaps the best part of winter is Christmas and all that it means: family coming home to visit; my wife knocking herself out making fabulous meals; playing the favorite Christmas music that hibernates the rest of the year; a long vacation from work; and, of course, remembering the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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