I love winter.

It’s not always a winter wonderland during the winter, but I still love it. I grew up with four seasons, and winter was always my favorite season. Maybe because I was born in December? Maybe because of Christmas? This season breathes with family time, slow evenings by the fire, giving gifts, comfort food, and lots of festivities. Our winter is full of family birthday parties on top of all the other activities and celebrations. This season has it all! I just love this time of the year.

Every year winter memories from my childhood come back. Something special that I cherish greatly. When I was a child, my siblings and I spent a lot of time outside, especially during winter break. We would ski, play in the snow, build snow forts, go sleighing, try to make small ice rings or ice hills for sleighing, and much more. But my favorite winter memory would be when our dad was home, and he would take us all to the nearby hill to sleigh. He would connect our sleighs together to create a train and then pull us all, all the way there and back. We all had lots of fun riding our sleigh train.

Now I live in the part of the world where in order to see the snow you have to travel to the mountains. Luckily it is not too far. In about two hours you can fully enjoy a true winter wonderland in one of the most beautiful places in my humble opinion.

For the last ten years my family has been renting a house in the mountains near Lake Tahoe every winter. We usually go there in the beginning of the year to enjoy the beauty of real winter weather and snow. I think the time when the whole family comes together to spend few days together was our dad’s favorite time of the year. He loved to be with his family. We celebrated his birthday there a few times.
We celebrated his last 76th birthday there. He always enjoyed Lake Tahoe and never stopped saying how beautiful it is.

After he went to be with the Lord, this place began to hold a special winter memory for me.

This year we went there again. We had an amazing family time! Lots of laughter, food, games, snow, and fellowship.

We watched the Winter Olympics and went sleighing with a breathtaking view.

We also went hiking. It was my first time hiking in the snow. We climbed the mountain and enjoyed the panoramic view of our beautiful Lake Tahoe.

This place never stops to amaze me! If you are a nature lover like me, I highly recommend visiting this place. And maybe even make a tradition coming back to this place every year and create lifelong memories. It is beautiful in any season.

Do you have any winter memories? I would love to know them! Write them down in the comment section.

With love,

Natasha