It's beginning to look a lot like Seasonal Affect Disorder

Ok.

So, this is the time of the year where the North Country's infamous winter begins to do-me-in. For realz. The snow can be so delightful when it is sunny, 35* and fluffy --- but, more importantly: it's better right before Christmas. We all squeal with delight and sing, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..." in our best Bing Crosby imitation - complete with a crooner's "ba-ba-ba-baaaa" at the end. 

But, we sometimes forget, in all that merriness, that this is what we are left with post-Christmas:

Brown yuckiness, below freezing temperatures and gray skies. This is definitely the time of the year that has gotten increasingly harder for me to endure through the last few years. I was saying the other day that I enjoyed the winter a lot more when I was a teenager due to the fact that a lot of my friends and I did things in the snow: skiing, snowmobiling, sledding down ridiculously steep hills that ended next to a busy road (how dumb is that?) and other fun things.

But, that's not quite as realistic now a days. We grew up. We have jobs, house mortgages, children, and more importantly: a healthy fear of being run over by a car as we slide down hills or killing ourselves thinking we can still handle the jump on the Face at Titus Mountain.

And just to make things worse, I saw this picture on my Photo Stream.

This is just a little glimpse of what my husband has been up to. Yes, he has called to complain that the cities he has been visiting are unusually cold for their climate. And yes, I'll admit to completely tuning him out when he says that, because lets face it: 48* and sunny is much easier to swallow than the 3* (yes, thats the predicted temperature for Monday) and gloomy. The difference? I'd take a walk in one and not in the other.

And I think thats what this all comes down to: I feel kind of like the way my dog probably feels in her crate. Soon I just might start scratching at the floor and whining. 

HOWEVER.

The major difference between all the winters in the past decade and this winter:

And, well, you just can't complain as much when, although I look out the window and cry seeing that, but then I look down and see this and it makes for the best day. (I'd still like to take her out for a walk in 48* sunshine!)