Hello Snow, Goodbye Winter

Winter, snow, and Christmas. 
Ornaments, ho ho ho, hot chocolate, and mistletoe. 
What else is there in the cold months? 

Oh wait! That is winter in the Northern Hemisphere.

Living in the Southern Hemisphere reminds me of the Chronicles of Narnia where Lucy explains, "And the White Witch has made a magic so that it is always winter in Narnia—always winter, but it never gets to Christmas."

Here in Chile we are in a winter...without Christmas. 

Nothing beats the winter blues though like a visit to the Andes. Over the weekend some friends and I climbed into a van and headed to the border region between Chile and Argentina. The day was perfect: snowball fights and snow angels, snowmen and sunshine, hot chocolate and good friends, white mountains and frozen lakes. 

What I realized was that even without Christmas, winters in Chile are still beautiful.