this time of year (2006 Edition)

i can't believe i've had a blog long enough to have an annual installment of something. it's almost like having a child who turned one sometime in the last month or so, except you forgot exactly when his birthday was, and it's not like anyone really cares anyways. last year around this time i wrote about stuff that annoys me this time of the year. there are still plenty of things i don't like about fall, halloween and winter. but even though it took me a while, in the interests of fairness and equality, i did come up with a few things i do like about this time of year.

-scarves and mittens.
-the greater prevalence of fire in general.
-how watching Thanksgiving Day football is somehow the most perfect thing in the world after consuming mountains of food (and how at our house the girls make the food and the boys (usually) clean it up).
-snowmobiling.
-shiny smooth acorns.
-scraping ice off my car...oh wait, i HATE that. With a passion. right.
-coming in to where it's warm (the only remotely good thing about cold).
-the ukranian bell carol and auld lang syne.
-cold-weather drinks such as cider and russian tea.
-when the sun shines on the snow and makes it sparkle like crazy.
-new years' eve, and the pre-midnight countdown.
-how my mom still uses old holiday decorations because she knows we remember them from when we were kids, even though some of them are kind of ugly.