I love winter, I really do. I thoroughly enjoy snow. Making footprints in a fresh blanket of the stuff, snow angels, a failed attempt to make a snowman (I have never succeeded in creating a decent snowman), the cancellation of school, and curling up in front of a fire. But the downsides of winter kind of trump the beauty of it for me. Unless there's snow, winter is ugly. Grey skies, empty tree branches, very litte color. It's almost depressing. Not to mention the fact that you get fat in the winter.

And when there is snow, it makes driving treacherous, when you walk outside it hurts to breathe, your nose gets all red and drippy, and I especially hate it when it takes so much effort to walk from one place to another that you start to sweat even though your teeth are chattering.

When snow somehow makes its way into your gloves or down your pants and your wrists and butt turn numb. I hate that too. When you have to get out and push the car up a hill with your mom sitting in the drivers seat pounding on the gas, spitting dirty snow at you, that sucks as well.

My favorite time of the year is when everything comes back to life. In the spring, where you go away for a few days, leaving naked trees behind, and returning to everything regenerating. The green comes back, and the skies start to look a little bluer. The temperature plays with 60 degrees and you can finally pull out the flip flops you wish you could've been wearing for the past five months. You can start to toy with idea of summer and tank tops, shorts, days of swimming and laying out. Cookouts, county fairs, and drive-ins.