Although winter is a cold period of time with much fewer light hours than night time for most of the Northern Hemisphere, it is also one of the most fun if you aren't afraid of a little cold. As a child, I spent a good deal of time out of doors during the winter. We had a fairly descent hill at our City Park so I went skiing a lot. I had to walk up since it wasn't a ski slope in any means but it was lots and lots of fun. My parents had been skiers so we had poles and skis but they never took my sister and I up to the slopes. I built snow angels and snowmen and play houses in the snow. We even rode our bicycles all over too. I lived in Northern Colorado so we got our share of snow and a lot more when I was little than now. We had a good sized lake at City Park too so we ice skated when the ice was thick enough. That was my favorite pastime. When I was in fourth grade, we moved to Laramie, Wyoming. There they had a regular ice rink and since it was so much higher in altitude than home, the ice lasted for quite some time. I took a few lessons while living there but not enough since we moved back nine months after moving there. I really missed the rink and my "boyfriend". Actually, Laramie wasn't all that bad to a nine year old. The kids were nice and then there was the rink. That's all while I was a child. As an adult I used to make excuses to go to town when it snowed so I could drive in it. I loved the sounds of the snow beneath the tires of the car. Now you know for sure that I am a strange person, right?

In 1975 we moved to Southern California and I didn't see snow again for the next eight years unless we went home for Christmas. I almost forgot how to drive in it. Actually, Fall and Winter for me in So. Calif. was very depressing. I love my seasons and there you didn't get much. Iris would be blooming when it should be getting cold at night and warm during the day and being able to walk through falling leaves. We moved to a house with two trees in the front that lost their leaves in the fall so at least I got my falling leaves. Then came winter. Christmas was kind of hard to take with the Christmas trees drying up and dying on the tree lots. They were practically dead before you put them up. Unless you bought an artificial tree, there was no way to put a tree up early and keep it up until after Christmas. There was one advantage about Christmas in Los Angeles though, all the neighborhoods got truly carried away with decorating houses for Christmas. The candle power of electricity tripled during December. You could drive over one of the hills and look out over and entire valley quite literally "lit up like a Christmas tree". A true sight to behold.

Then comes the rest of winter. You can describe it in one word, RAIN. Unlike here in Western Washington, when it rained there, it rained for days on end. Usually it was a constant misty rain but the entire sky as far as you could see was one huge gray canopy and it misted for days or weeks at a time. At least, Spring came early compared to Colorado. When the strawberry fields tucked away in every nook and corner of every neighborhood were planted and started blooming you knew things were looking up. Down there, every available space was either a citrus grove or a strawberry field. Here it's every available spot has been a Christmas tree farm and many of them over grown and out of control.

If you wish to learn more about the activities usually observed in each of the winter months, click on the banners above for each of the three months represented. *NOTE* February is not yet open.