January is one of those months that makes me want to do two things: Cooking and Books.

It’s the best when you heat up the house by having the oven going with fresh breadsticks and the stovetop full, and knowing that soon everyone is going to gather around the table to enjoy a big, homemade meal that you just prepared. Cooking in the winter time with snow falling lightly and hues of gray, white, brown, gold, and blue taking over the world creates a cozy atmosphere. It steeps the world in calm and makes me think of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books.

And then books… What could be more delightful? It’s equally as wonderful to read as to write because winter is the catalyst that makes words build up inside me, eager to escape, but also makes me long to fill my brain with more words.

My preferred writing setting is to sit at my desk with low lighting – my Christmas lights and salt lamp – soft music playing, a hot beverage standing at attention nearby, a candle filling the room with heavenly scents, and my office clean. It’s not like I’m picky or anything… (insert eye-roll) Really though, I can write in most environments, I just know which environment sparks my muse and sends my imagination off on a flight of happiness.

As for reading? That can happen anywhere, at any time. But, if we’re talking about the cozy winter reading? Then my overstuffed couch, a fuzzy blanket, light snack, and lighting that’s just the right brightness so I can read without straining my eyes wins out.

This will be the first winter in a long time that I’m not going to Florida at least once (last year I went twice). My grandparents live there and since I work from my computer, I generally spent a couple weeks with them a couple times a year. I very much miss not getting to go hang out with them (due to my job at the coffee shop), but I’m delighted to be spending so much of winter in, well, wintery settings.

Do you like winter? Is it wintery where you live?