Top 10 Tuesdays: Top 10 Things I Love/Hate About Winter

Top 10 Tuesday again! Please check out Keebles' and Kate's blogs for their lists as well. We're sure to be somewhat different since our locales are pretty disparate in climate and altitude. :)

TOP 10 THINGS I LOVE/HATE ABOUT WINTER

This should be an easy one since I've always lived somewhere that has had 4 distinct seasons and there's something to like and dislike about each. 

1. Snow (when I don't have to drive in it)

A beautiful form of precipitation as long as all you have to do is look at it, not shovel it or drive in it. I have lots of good memories of snow forts, snowball fights, snowmen, all kinds of things and I'm looking forward to making new ones with DD this year. 

2. Snow (when I do have to drive in it)

My commute is a lot shorter than it used to be, but I'm still mostly on the highway which can be good and bad. They tend to clean it off faster, but there are still a lot of people that believe the faster they drive, the sooner they'll get there and the less chance of anything bad happening, but it's usually the opposite. 

3. Xmas

This was basically my happiest time all year when I was a kid, so I have a lot of good memories of Xmas. I won't say it soured, but things change when you grow up. I'd like to try and recapture some of what made me excited about Xmas with DD. 

4. Freezing Rain

This goes hand in hand with snow, but 1000 times I'd rather drive in snow than freezing rain. I've been on drives where you can only continue straight because you're following the path of the car ahead of you and if you veer off that path at all you could be in the ditch. 

I've had 2 accidents in a previous vehicle, fortunately both one-car accidents, but both due to ice on the road. 

5. Hot Chocolate

Let's face it, I will have hot chocolate any time, even in summer, but I can make more of an excuse for it in the winter. :)

6. Sledding

I don't know if DD is ready for sledding down hills yet, but maybe? It would be fun and again, that was a really fun thing to do when I was a kid. We'd all go to the high school where they had decent sized hills and sled and sled and sled until we had to go home. 

7. Xmas Lights

I love seeing Xmas lights! Especially with snow on top of them. I wish I had a photo of one of my favourite Xmas memories, the lights on my Grandma's bushes after a few inches of snow had fallen. There was a small cavity around each light where it had melted the snow and the multi-coloured lights all seemed to have small haloes around them. 

8. Hockey

Winter is the time for hockey! I realize that hockey exists in a lot of places, including my local area, in the summer, but it doesn't feel right to me. I've started back playing hockey and it will continue to be a winter sport for me. I love hockey. The only type of exercise that doesn't feel like exercise to me. 

9. Xmas music

This is a love/hate one. I do enjoy some Xmas music, but the vast majority is too saccharine. I'm glad that we have control over the music at work. My partner likes Xmas music, but he likes good Xmas music as well, so that's lucky. My MIL once sang "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer" at a French concert! She had translated the words and many people had never heard the English song, so it went over well. 

10. Stitching

Okay, okay. I tried to leave it out, but it's true! The weather is cooler, so we're all wrapped up inside and there's more time to stitch. Plus, there are tons of great winter/Xmas patterns that can fit anyone. Look to a later Top 10 post for some favourite patterns. ;)

The second part of this one is the planning of next year's stitching. Of course planning only goes so far and there's likely something new that will come up that I'll want to stitch, but the planning is a lot of fun. 

I hope you enjoyed my list!

Tiffstitch