Don't shoot the messenger for this one, but winter is officially here.
Christmas vacation is underway for local schools. Government offices, some professional services and others are closed until 2025. A lot of people will be off for part of or all of the holidays, but a lot of businesses are still open.
Regardless of whether you have to work, you can still find fun things to do during the Christmas holidays.
Winter can be what you make of it. You might not find the bevy of outdoor activities, festivals and other fun things that you have in the summer months. You're not going to get those glorious nights around the campfire when it is 20 C at sunset at 8:30 p.m.
But winter can still be a pretty good season. There's more to winter than sitting around your house with the heat on, waiting for the snow to melt and spring to arrive. And you can do more outside than just clear snow from your driveway and your sidewalk.
Recent snowfall did more than frustrate motorists and guarantee a white Christmas. It gave us more activities to enjoy. There might not be enough snow on the ground for snowmobile enthusiasts to break out their sleds just yet, but there are other fun potential activities.
We've seen more people snowshoeing and cross-country skiing in recent years. Snowshoes have come a long way from those big, wooden, floppy things of years past. We have a lot of really nice parks in the southeast, from Moose Mountain Provincial Park near Carlyle to Woodlawn Regional Park south of Estevan, and they have great trails for us to enjoy throughout the year, including the winter months.
And you can go for a walk with only your boots as your winter footwear.
You can go tobogganing down one of the hills in your community, make use of an outdoor rink once it's open or just go for a walk. If temperatures warm up, as was the forecast, then it gives even more incentive to spend time outdoors.
Go for a drive out in the country and enjoy the scenery with the snow covering the fields in the area.
Other activities will resume once school is back in session and people are back in town. The Eagle Sky Estevan Bruins will be back on the ice as they make a push for a playoff spot. Senior hockey will be back with the second half of the Big Six Hockey League's regular season. Minor hockey will return as well. And there will be lots of action at the local curling rink, too.
We're blessed to have a lot of great cultural facilities in the southeast as well, and they'll be offering programs for the next few months.
And there are other events that will be happening in the next few months, activities that will be lots of fun for people to enjoy. Some of them will be indoors.
Now, we do have to exercise common sense. If there's an extreme cold warning in effect, it's probably not a good time to take up cross-country skiing. If heavy snow is in the forecast, it's probably best not to take that long country drive. And it's probably not a good idea to be outside at 8:30 p.m. on a normal night, unless you're dressed for the conditions.
But still, the fun doesn't stop just because winter is here. There's still a lot for you to do. And with the shortest day of the year in the rear-view mirror, we get to look forward to a little more daylight with every passing day.
