By Stefanie Michaels
I’m a true California girl, born and raised in Los Angeles. I’m used to mild winters and pretty much sunshine at least 350 days a year. Most times, winters are spent outside, under heat lamps should it hit the high 60’s. Literally, if the weather dips into the 50’s, you’ll see people walking around town in thick parkas.
Angelenos aren’t made for cold weather, and even the idea of being cold makes us shudder.
Now, listen, I’m a world traveler and have been to several freezing places. I also love skiing, too. So it’s not that I’m not prepared for cold weather when I need be. But that’s just it. Most people who have experience with cold weather prepare for it by gearing up, adding thicker clothing, and when weather hits extreme lows, they stay at home.
I visited friends in Minnesota during winter, and found out about snow days! We had the best time doing at home projects, and I had an awakening of creativity and all of the things one could do when stuck on the inside.
Here’s my list of ideas:
- Social-ish: Finding activities to keep busy can include game nights, mini-parties with neighbors nearby, and inside spa days with friends and family. Getting together and spending quality time with loved ones is the best part.
- Entertainment: I love watching movies or vintage TV shows, listening to music and reading to escape reality, especially when watching warm weather programming while it’s snowing outside.
- Creativity: Crafting, DIY projects, cooking and baking can fun because tapping into creativity and making something to special for others feels good and tastes good.
- Problem-solving: Puzzling, games, and video gaming require problem-solving and can be challenging and time consuming.
- Relaxation: Engage in self care like yoga using an at-home app, taking bubble bomb baths, or reading in a window bay, can be relaxing and help to reduce stresses of daily life.
- Accomplishment: Activities like cleaning, decluttering, and organizing can be fun because who doesn’t want to feel like Marie Kondo– productive and accomplished like.
- Self-care: Creating skincare and body care products with natural products (recipes from online) or getting your hands in the soil by indoor gardening can be fun because they involve taking care of oneself, be it body or mind or the environment. I always say getting your hands in dirt is good for the soul.
- Kid-ish: Love it when feeling like a kid again? Order faux snowballs online to prepare for a snow day, or use dampened cotton balls and have an indoor snowball fight. Or, weather permitting, spend a little time outside having similar fun.
