Good morning!

The forecast where we live is predicting the first snowfall tomorrow and I just want you all to know I’ve been preparing for this moment all year. I started re-watching The Gilmore Girls with my daughter and we’re almost to the first snow episode and can I just say that my wish is for all of us to be Lorelai.

You know what surprises me? I get that driving in snow is hard(er) than normal and shoveling snow is laborious and dressing for colder weather is allthethings, but what I don’t get is the adopted attitude that everything turns to shit in winter. I live in Michigan, winter is all but guaranteed, and while I used to have the rage feelings about this season, too, I’ve since realized that the only reason I felt that way was because I was taught to feel that way.

Truth is? I really love winter. Like, I AM A SUPER FAN OF WINTER. I love it so much. It’s beautiful and calm and the entire world whispers and it shines like glitter and it smells amazing and Thanksgiving happens and then Christmas comes and then we get to celebrate a handful of family birthdays (one being my favorite teenager of all time) and we get to go skiing and be among the trees while they hibernate and glisten and we bake all the things and drink hot chocolate and have you ever felt the pure joy of sledding down a hill with friends, or small kids, or grandparents?

YOU SHOULD TRY IT.

I get that popular opinion is usually the path of least resistance and that there are staunch supporters of “Winter is the Worst” – thats fine. Hats off, dear friends. But the rest of us? Really? Do we really hate winter? Or are we just taught to turn our noses up and complain about the roads?

We can do hard things, even changing our mind about our likes and dislikes – or maybe discovering them for the first time.

Let’s not forget that for some weird (out of body) reason I am Team Holidays this year. I feel like making jersey’s and going caroling and hand delivering baked goods to my neighbors in a horse drawn sleigh. We can all wonder what the H happened to me, while you’re busy doing that – I’ll be over here cheering for snow and flipping the freak out about the weight of all this joy. Effortless, I tell you. There’s just so much and it’s just so dangum easy to carry.

Here’s a list of things to do this winter, and please add to it and take from it whatever serves you and leave the rest. Maybe the most freeing thing about all this is realizing we can change our minds or witness our hearts healing. Look up, you get to decide what’s next.

Obviously, GO SLEDDING
Make snowmen
Bake Holiday treats
Watch Holiday movies (Elf, The Christmas Calendar, Home Alone, Easrnest does Christmas, Polar Express, The Grinch … I need more, leave suggestions in the comments)
Make tree decorations
Snowball fight
Go to a local middle or high school play (go to all of them?)
See the Holiday symphony
Sing along to the radio
Play Christmas music REALLY LOUD, and often
Decorate early!
Or just dust off those boxes and decorate at all
Make an indoor tent with sheets, read stories, drink hot chocolate
Hang twinkly lights
Buy those chocolate advent calendars, go nuts
Speaking of nuts, roast some! Or sugar some!
Walk around the mall, take it all in. You don’t even need to shop, just watch, smell, listen.
Pick up a journal and choose to write something in it every day – a joke, a memory, something you’re thankful for, what you need to let go of in order to choose new/different/now. No rules, there is not right way to feel (especially in private).
Draw or paint or color
Do a puzzle
Wear slippers on purpose, giggle
Buy that coffee creamer you love, and get the full fat, real sugar stuff. (do it.)
Try a new latte
Meet a friend for lunch, order mimosa’s (or something fancy)
Host a game night
Greet your neighbors with a lot of excitement. They should maybe wonder what you’re so jolly about. Confuse the hell out of people – give away joy like candy canes at the north pole.
Go for a wintery walk in the woods or a trail you love
Shovel someone’s driveway
Play with puppies in the snow
Skip school for the perfect ski day – run away together
Sit in a hot-tub during a snowstorm
Take lots of baths, light the candles
Go cross-country skiing
Go snow-shoeing
Go bird watching after a powdery snow fall
Call your Grandma’s and Grandpa’s – ask them about their favorite holiday traditions from their past
Visit your library
Make goofy headbands (elf, reindeer, santa)
Star in a child’s directional debut of the Night Before Christmas – perform at gatherings, laugh a lot
Play group games (pictionary, catch phrase, etc)
Host sleepovers
When out of town family comes to town, SHOW THEM WHAT YOU LOVE, take them to your favorite spots, spring for the bill, get out the good plates, buy the brisket
Build an igloo
Go iceskating

Your turn, friends. Show up in the comments, let’s build this list so grand and fantastic that we look back and think of this as the winter we started believing.

It’s going to snow tomorrow.

I’m ready.