My Winter Happy Place. You're Welcome.

Sweet Baby Jesus, it is cold outside. I'm talking two pairs of gloves, eyeball freezing, mmmkay-I'm-gonna-just-lay-here-and-let-the-winter-consume-me kind of cold.

So everyone hunker down. I shall take you to my winter happy place.

It's night, in the middle of the forest. Not scary forest, don't worry. Disney forest. Little House in the Big Woods forest. The only creatures around are chipmunks and foals, who scamper here and there amongst the green evergreens. It's snowing. The trees block the wind, so the snow falls slowly. Gracefully. Quietly. There is a fresh sheet covering the ground.

Ahead is a large, modern log cabin. The windows and door are green (my greatest dream is to have a colorful door. I don't know why), and puffy white smoke billows from a large brick chimney, bringing with it the smell of burning wood. No, the cabin isn't burning down. This is extra wood, from a tree that fell naturally. No one heard it.

This is your home. You open the door and step inside.

You are hit with a warmness that wraps itself around you. Classical music plays softly. Normally you aren't a classical music kind of person, but the ambiance just seems right. Immediately to your right is a large kitchen filled with new appliances and an island. A fresh batch of sugar cookies lay cooling. The mystery of how they got there is irrelevant. They are warm sugar cookies. You grab seven.

On your left is the living room. It is the coziest room you could imagine. An enormous fireplace takes up most of the wall, a fire crackling within it. Basically, picture Beauty and the Beast when Belle pulls the thorn from the Beast's paw. A pillow-adorned couch faces the fire. You sit down, leaving your boots on the oval rug there, and cover yourself with a thick blanket. You grab the book sitting on the end table (again, not always a reader, but somehow Monday Night Football doesn't seem to fit with the night), and spend your time cozy and warm.

That's it. Fill in the gaps with your own cozed-up needs. As a teen, this of course included an interruption at the door by a tall, handsome man with a single red rose. Occasionally an engagement ring. Nowadays, my happy place does usually include someone there to keep my toes warm. But the quiet involved is part of this place for me. So they have to mostly keep to themselves.