Thursday Thirteen: 13 not so great things about winter

OK, the title is deceiving. I couldn't actually think of 13 things about winter I don't like....so the last four are things I DO like about winter. But with daylight savings time started and the dark taking over at 4pm, I'm already feeling the winter blues descending from the low lying cloud cover.

Here's 9 things I don't like about winter, and 4 things I do like. Let me know if I missed any of yours (favorite or not).

1. Dark nights - it's 4pm and already getting dark, how depressing. If only my kids would go to bed at 4pm some days.

2. Grey skies and rainy days - the month of November can be miserable here in small town Canada. No more blue skies of the prairies.

3. Cold house. I think I've mentioned the heat war in our house. I'm always cold and my husband is always warm, so the house usually feels cold to me.

4 . Cold feet. It's nearly impossible to feel warm when your feet are cold - and hard to warm up when your husband won't let you warm your feet up against him.

5. Head colds - early November and I'm already hit. I really suffered last year with a stuffed head and am hoping this year won't be a repeat performance. Runny noses on your kids goes along with this one.

6. Bundling your kids - snowsuits, mittens, jackets, layers - going out takes forever just to get out the door.

7. Lack of fruit - back to apples, bananas and oranges unless you're prepared to pay a small fortune.

8. Less things to keep kids busy. The park just isn't any fun when it's raining and the winds are blowing off the lake. Plus with the early nights, I can't send them running out into the backyard after supper.

9. Hibernating friends. You see people less because they're bundled up in their houses and not out and about.

OK, here's the good things.

1. Tons of snow - I grew up in a skiing family, so at the beginning of winter, it's always a pleasure to see the flakes fall. Especially where I live, where the snow isn't accompanied with bitter cold temperatures.

2. Skiing - hasn't happened much in the last few years, but when it has it sure has felt great when I have made it out to the hill and since it's only 1/2 hour away, I have no more excuses this year with the kids both in daycare on Fridays.

3. Sweaters...if I had lots of money, I'd buy new ones every year. I always enjoy digging through my sweaters and finding ones I forgot I had.

4. Movies. The race for Oscar brings out the good movies and the summer blockbusters come out on DVD, so coupled with the fall season of TV, the evenings had some entertainment.