Winter

I'm a Miami girl. I may not have been born there, and I may have moved away a few times in the past, but when in comes to the climate I'm most comfortable in bring me 90 degree weather all the way.  This has been a hard adjustment for me to make in New York. As much as I love the city and all its many activities in winter I just want to hibernate with some warm soup and good books.  There aren't many good reasons to venture out, in my opinion.  However, in the interests of being an optimist, here are a few things that are not completely horrible about winter in New York City.

1. The Christmas Fairs (or holiday fairs, if I'm being politically correct).  I love them.  There is no similar semi-permanent market during the winter months in Miami that I'm aware of.  And even though it's an outdoor market and therefore completely freezing, it is just what I pictured Christmas and winter to be like when I was still basking in the warm sun of Florida.  I do a lot of my Christmas shopping here because I am a total sucker for these kitchy homemade craft things, and it is one of the few things that will get me to voluntarily spend an hour or two outdoors in winter.

2.  Ice rinks are pretty cool too. I actually even wrote an article about them on Associated Content.  I only end up going a couple times each winter and I'm very very bad at it but it is, again, one of the pictures I had of winter in my head back when outdoor ice rinks were more of a theoretical issue.  I feel very New Yorky when skating around the rink and the cheesy Christmas music they blare only adds to that.

3.  Winter clothing is cute for the first couple months. But then again, so is summer clothing. I'm maybe calling this one a draw.

4. Snow. I'm enough of a southerner to still get a little excited by it, though the first flush of new love has  passed.

Aaannndddd...that's all I can think of for now. I'll try to come up with a few more, if only to chant them to myself in February when ALL I WANT TO DO IS DIE and the cold feels like it will never, never end.  So.  Yay winter?