10 Reasons to Love Winter

Winter is here. But don’t be glum about the short days and cold winds. There’s so much to celebrate, from big coats to bonfires.

1 The drama of saying ‘Winter is here.’ Say it out loud now. It feels good, doesn’t it? It makes you feel powerful and prophetic. Now try saying it about the other seasons. “Spring is coming.” You sound like Kate Humble. “Autumn is coming.” A weird conker fetishist. “Summer is coming.” Boots advert. But “Winter is coming” is sexy. It’s full of drama and foreboding. You’re predicting death, essentially. You sound deep. And Game Of Thrones has only enhanced this. Now you’re not just declaring that you know the order of the seasons, you’re alluding to the fact that you watch good drama. You’re telling people you can differentiate between a dizzying number of identically named characters. This means you’re cleverer than them. Remember that.

2 Being able to see sunrises. A few weeks ago the only people who saw the sun rise were bakers, night workers and the chronically sleep-deprived. In the dead of winter, the sun doesn’t rise until at least seven. Everyone sensible’s awake by then, and the first thing they see is a gorgeous pastel explosion: a sky-sized swirl of reds, pinks and yellows that makes them awed to the point of tears to be living on such an impossibly beautiful planet. Then they Instagram it, and it may as well be someone’s dinner or a cat’s face. Seriously, people are idiots.

Want to Swim in Winter? Here’s Where!

When the pools around town close for the summer, and the lifeguard whistles stop tweeting across the warm air, most of us in Colorado put thoughts of swimming to rest. Our eyes and hearts shift quickly from the pool to the slow build-up of snow on the mountains to our west. We hit the ski sales and re-outfit our growing kids in new gear, while bathing suits sink forgotten to the bottom of dresser drawers.

I am a summer girl, however, who counts the days until Memorial Day as soon as the sun sets on Labor Day. And I have a child who loves being in the water. It’s not necessarily about swimming for him. It’s just the calm, the ease of movement. So this winter, for the first time, I looked to our local indoor pools and was more than pleasantly surprised about the options.

An entire family can spend the day swimming while watching the snow fall outside from steamy floor-to-ceiling windows. And it costs as little as $20 for a family of four. Here are a few we have enjoyed from north of the city to south of it: