Winter is now in full effect and it is very cold out there. Depending on where you are in the world will drastically dictate how you are experiencing this chilly season. While some people are not big fans of this time of the year, others like to make the best of it and use it as an opportunity to bring you closer to friends and family.

In my neighborhood, we find that it brings us closer to our neighbors since so many us stay in, we invite many of our neighbors over for hot cocoa, tea, and cookies! We all like to sit around by the fire and tell stories of when we were kids.

While many of our children are parked by the TV or computers, once they hear us adults having fun, they quickly join in (of course having fresh made warm cookies helps!). Recently some of our neighbors came by and shared some of their favorite inspiring quotes about winter so I thought I would share them here with the community:

He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter. John Burroughs

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness. ― John Steinbeck

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is time for home. - Edith Sitwell

We cannot stop the winter or the summer from coming. We cannot stop the spring or the fall or make them other than they are. They are gifts from the universe that we cannot refuse. But we can choose what we will contribute to life when each arrives. - Gary Zukav

Winter is a season of recovery and preparation. - Paul Theroux

People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy. Anton Chekhov

I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, 'Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.' - Lewis Carroll

The color of springtime is in the flower. The color of winter is in the imagination.

Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality. Andy Goldsworthy

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. - Albert Camus

Thank goodness for the first snow, it was a reminder--no matter how old you became and how much you'd seen, things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered. - Candace Bushnell

I love to watch the fine mist of the night come on,
The windows and the stars illumined, one by one,
The rivers of dark smoke pour upward lazily,
And the moon rise and turn them silver. I shall see
The springs, the summers, and the autumns slowly pass;
And when old Winter puts his blank face to the glass,
I shall close all my shutters, pull the curtains tight,
And build me stately palaces by candlelight.”
― Charles Baudelaire