Baby, it's cold outside!

Top 10 things I love about winter, my favorite season, in no particular order:

-- The smell. Whether indoors or out, it's good. Burning wood, pine, pumpkin pies, cinnamon. I love it all.

-- The clothes. Nothing better than bundling up in soft, cozy fleece or a delicious sweater, topped off with a colorful scarf, hat, and mittens.

-- Twinkle lights!

-- Christmas music! (Partridge Family takes the cake, of course.)

-- School holidays!

-- Wood-burning fireplaces in full blaze, framed by a mantle decorated with poinsettias, candles, and, perhaps, a Nativity Scene.

-- Hot chocolate with marshmallows!

-- The burst of energy that you get when you've just come in from only a minute or two out in the frigid, frosty air.

-- The anticipation (albeit merely anticipation) of the tiniest possibility of it maybe snowing at some point even if it doesn't stick or is in the middle of the night when no one sees it.

-- Family traditions that would seem silly at any other time of the year, but which are perfectly acceptable during this particular season because, heck, it's Christmas*.

*See album choice in my fourth entry, for an example. Also reading tales of barnyard animals who get a visit from a goat clothed in red long underwear and pretending he's Santa Claus. Yeah. More of that later in the year, I promise.