Current location:	the dorm...
Current mood:	relaxed
Current music:	coldplay, counting crows, beatles..take your pick.

cold winter days
so, i was thinking about all the reasons i love winter...i mean, i love certain things about every season, but winter is just so relaxing and comfortable...

1. curling up with a blanket and drinking hot chocolate or tea near a nice warm fireplace
2. driving near my house for "light night" where we drive and sing christmas carols and pick out the houses with the best lights
3. making icy trips to the beach in underarmor and layers and layers of clothes..watching the waves and seeing an already peaceful setting turn even more relaxing due to the lack of people around
4. having little picnics on the beach..snow days are best for this, but any day will do.
5. smelling pine trees and breathing in that warm smell
6. laying in bed really late just because i can, knowing i have nothing too pressing to do. im lucky jersey has a very distinct 4 seasons...winter is a time for me to catch up on a whole bunch of nothing, every other season is so hectic
7. watching the world. the delicate snow is breathtaking. icicles are pure magic and the stillness that encompasses all of this is indescribable. i love the visible cold breath i get this time of year...and how it just fits perfectly with this stillness. no one wants to go out anywhere because theyre enjoying extra time under the covers...i love spending the extra time in bed, but i also love being one of few to take a long drive and experience the stillness around me..music playing, most likely christmas music...but also regular music as well. i could listen to christmas music year round.
8. making my extra sleeping time worthwhile by reading books in bed and spending whole days doing this. nothing is more rewarding than curling up with a good book...its so refreshing.
9. seeing my family and friends for the holidays.. and setting new years resolutions to see them as much as i can the year after. i like the thought of a new year and changes in someones life...i mean, the best time for change is now, but most people put change off. theres no excuse once new years comes around
10. i lovee decorating for christmas.. putting up the tree with my sisters and brother..hanging the lights outside in the freezing cold wind with my mom. i mean, we pick the coldest night every year but its so worth it once we go inside for hot cocoa and some homemade cookies and talk about how cold we just were.
11. mommas homemade cookies. shes brilliant... we make a good 40 different types of cookies every year...and thats with cutting out a few recipes every year so we have enough cookie bins to put them all in. momma even takes off work and we used to take off days of school to help her bake. i really love the atmosphere of a kitchen during winter...i love the warm food. its different than the rest of the year.
12. gloves and mittens and hats and scarves... i can never have enough of them. actually. thats not specific enough. im literally obsessed. and my little peacoat. i love being freezing so i can put them all on together.
13. playing in the snow. ill be four forever and i love building snowmen (my first one was a few feet taller than i was..i was so proud of that thing)...and having snowball fights and building snow forts and making snow angels. i love making snow angels in the sand in the summer just to remind me of snow angels in the actual snow. i love ice skating in my backyard when all the rain falls down my hill and then it all freezes right outside my back door...we used to skate for hours and hours. the best was when our swingset was still in the backyard and wed fly off the swings or slide down the slide into the ice and get all beat up. yes, i was still a high schooler doing all that too..
14. wearing big warm slippers. thats my other obsession. i have way too many (theres never enough!) pairs of slippers. and theyre all unique.
15. staying home every once in a while to watch a movie with momma instead of going out with my friends. we both fall asleep like ten minutes into the movie, but its such good bonding time hehe
16. being able to layer clothes and make it look all cute. i so wish i could spend more money on more layers of winter clothes...
17. on the same note, deciding to not get all dressed cute in warm stuff and just wearing my sweatpants or pajama pants all day long. this is the best feeling in the world.
18. now that im away at school, this will probably be the time during the year that i spend the most time with my friends from home. its amazing how we can leave each other for a few months and although weve all changed, nothing between all of us has changed. right now, the changes are subtle but in the next few years they wont be...its just so beautiful that even then, i know well all see each other and everything will be the same.
19. some people may find the emptiness of winter depressing...i kind of find it refreshing. everyone needs a little downtime.
20. memories...the best memories come from this time of the year....this will be a hard christmas though, now that my puppy has passed on....so many memories with him sprinting across the house and knocking the christmas tree over after he skidded across the wood floor...him trying to eat ornaments...stealing christmas cookies from us...us trying to put either a santa hat or reindeer antlers on him and him managing to rip them off and then attack them...him trying to be a lap dog and cuddle with us..meanwhile my leg would fall asleep and then hed try to throw kisses all over my face and i couldnt move because my leg would be asleep (ha wow thats bothering me that thats in the passive voice...im such an english major...but whatevs, i was too lazy to hit delete so instead i just need to point it out)..and then theres my bunny, my baby. theres nothing like cuddling with a bunny and having the soft warm fur all in my nose (and even though ill sneeze for days after this, its worth it). she loves unconditionally, just like my dasher baby did...this will be a hard christmas also because of the loss of our other bunny, cocoa. hershey will just have to love all six of us as much as the three of them used to and will have to cuddle up with each of us.
21. another new thing for this year. cuddling up with my fleece blanket and laptop and skyping/video chatting with all my friends from school. its weird how i feel like ive known them forever...and im really going to miss them for the time im home.
22. having momma take care of me. i love how she spoils us in the winter time with random homemade soup or random homemade things. and then well all just stop what were doing and eat and relax...and somehow she finishes laundry so quickly and cleans the house, even when she has to work...and she makes less work for us all winter long, compared to the other seasons. its like she doesnt mind going the extra mile for us just so that our free time can be spent with her
23. coloring. i love bringing out my old coloring books and seeing all my scribbles in them...and then i color a better picture right next to them. and maybe art in general. i usually have more time to draw and paint in the winter...i love drawing i really do...i like to think im good at it...and im told i am, but its just more relaxing than anything else. nothing else matters except the pencil and paper, at least for a short while.
24. sneaking christmas cookies in the middle of the night...with an ice cold glass of milk. perfection.
25. still believing in santa, even though i know he isnt actually real. i love the concept...i love the giving and leaving him christmas cookies and waking up at 5 am and waking my parents up so we can go see what santa brought us. i love that despite the tenseness between my family at times...i wont go into that...we still love each other...and christmas just emphasizes that. were all big kids running around all excited for christmas presents. but now its even better than when we were younger because we used to be all excited for the presents..now were all excited for christmas in general and the happy atmopshere that encompasses the 5 am wakeup.

i guess ill stop there, you know, a little 25 reasons (25 days of christmas) sort of deal..plus its time for one of those amazing winter hybernation naps....