Growing up in central Michigan, followed by career years mostly in the mid Atlantic, I see both sides to immersion in white winter and its short days.

In the north, Winter is an opportunity to shift gears, don different threads, and turn your attention to cold, footing, visibility, and gloom.

But there's also skating on prepared rinks and for miles along snow covered frozen rivers, hiking and cross country skiing through thick stands of snow covered pines in dead silence at 15F, and cold play in a wealth of activities that exist only where cold and ice can pile up and last for months. And then you return home, slip into toasty togs, and warm yourself from within with a host of drinks that can't fully be enjoyed any other way.

Winter does have a certain magic to it.