My idea of an antidote to winter—a plant-filled front window as spotted in SoHo (circa December 2016).

January 2017, our escape to sunny California—this post constitutes part three and the conclusion of this particular sisters roadtrip (parts one and two, ~not chronological, I might add: Coronado/environs, Joshua Tree National Park), documenting our days in Orange County with family and familiar favorite places.

My aunt and uncle have lived in Irvine since my childhood and I have so many vivid memories at their home. My earliest recollection of visiting them there is a family trip to California when I was five; on that occasion, our cousin Jessica gave us a pink princess cape that our aunt had sewn for her. She had outgrown it, and we played outside for hours and the piece became a staple in our costume box upon our return home.

I've had the address memorized since grade school, when my cousin Jessica and I exchanged dozens of letters by mail. I know my way around their neighborhood not quite like the back of my hand, but nearly so. The geography of their subdivision is familiar and comforting.

Indeed, one of my very earliest posts on this blog was of a trip to my cousins' for Thanksgiving. At the time, a freshman in college, I was feeling very alone and adrift as a new college student and struggling to find my place (mainly socially). My mom bought me a plane ticket to California for Thanksgiving and it was one of the best things she could have done (a full-fledged trip back east for the holiday being incredibly costly for a low ROI aka barely any time so as to make the expense worth it). Being in California with people I loved and who love me, was a needed reprieve from the social drama of my freshman year.

As my aunt and uncle prepare to leave their longtime California home to move across the country, a small tiny part of me feels a twinge of sadness for this place that will no longer be what it has always been. Nostalgist that I am, it has been a constant in my life for so long, and a place I will miss dearly (though I'm sure there will be many more trips to California in my future, as there have been in the past).

Now that I've blindsided you with a heavy dose of sentimentality, I'll move on to the specifics of this particular visit.

Obvious highlights of the visit: spending time with these cuties. Our cousin Jessica's daughters are so sweet and doting and we love seeing them. They are such bright, smart, spunky girls, and spending time with them is a delight. We loved time, as always, with our Uncle Greg and Aunt Christie, talking movies, music, tv, and travel.

A VanDerwerken family requisite any time we are in proximity to Orange County: a visit to Balboa Island. My parents held their wedding luncheon at Shanghai Pine Gardens, a Chinese restaurant on the main street there (my friend Alyssa went there at my recommendation and said it was excellent—so now you know! I actually do not love Chinese food, and also hadn't been there since I was in high school, but it is a family favorite so I'm glad the recommendation holds true!). Although we grew up across the country, my grandparents lived with us after they moved from California and they would always make frozen chocolate-covered bananas, which I assumed everyone ate and loved. It wasn't until I was a little older that I connected the dots and realized that chocolate bananas were a Balboa Island staple, which my grandparents had brought east with them.

This generation's favorite Balboa spot is undoubtedly Dad's. We obviously love the frozen bananas, but we possibly love the hippo cookies even more. We've converted many a friend to the joy of Dad's hippo cookies—hippo-shaped sugar cookies with a colorful glaze and M&Ms for eyes. They are the happiest and I love them so much.

Any visit to Balboa, by necessity, includes a stroll to admire the cute bungalows and gardens (okay, okay—and auspicious waterfront Richard-Meier-esque-glass-façaded behemoths).

We also ventured with Jessica to the tower at Laguna's Victoria Beach. It was quite impressive and perhaps my favorite feature was the natural swimming pool constructed near the base—the rocky basin would fill naturally with salt water and the movements of the tide. The little girls played in the sand and we watched tiny sea birds scurry back and forth with the ebbs and flows of lapping waves.

I love the dramatic shifts in the Californian landscape—foggy tree-lined expanses of openness, cliffs dropping off at the edge of the sea, in between, areas brimming with plant life. California, I heart you.

I saw a cheeky illustration yesterday which resonated all too deeply with me—"It feels like January 74th." Winter has her charms, to be sure (see also: "Winter Is Not Always Terrible," parts one and two, respectively), but already the northern hemisphere's cold dark months seem to be dragging on all too entirely long for my liking/perceived personal well-being (cue title). WHO'S WITH ME.

While bordering on the cliché, Camus' (side note: how does one properly punctuate possessive apostrophes en français? My inner Francophone and Anglophile are at war with this one tiny stroke—Camus' or Camus's? Regardless, my intended pronunciation is thus: /kæˈmuːz/—the French final consonant silent as proscribed, with the addition of an English possessive 's' -z sound. more on the International Phonetic Alphabet (it traverses linguistic boundaries and consequently seemed an appropriate choice over traditional English dictionary pronunciation parlance!) here) words bubbled up from a dormant spring in my soul as I revisited some favorite photographs from a favorite alpine locale: "In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer."

These cold dreary days feel to be stretching ever onward in the distance—indeed, how can they feel anything but so when nearly all my daily comings and goings occur by dark—but a small glimpse at past hillsides of wildflowers run riot, colors blazing... well Camus'(s?) words reverberated within me with a quiet softness like falling snow on snow.

Until the wildflowers bloom, blazing, I will keep my eye to the sky where the world wheels its course—quilted clouds blanketing the snowy valley; the moon, the stars—pinpricks of cold, crystal; and the occasional burst of brilliance as the setting sun throws radiant rose-golden light on the snowy mountain caps—hints of that invincible summer, despite all evidences to the contrary.

p.s. Mari Andrew: 152 insights into my soul.

Part two for how to weather winter gracefully (see part one here). In the previous post, I mentioned some creature comforts which have helped me embrace winter and pass the colder months of the year in cozier circumstances. I feel myself going a little stir-crazy staying inside, however, so I have tried to embrace winter's opportunities and find people who will do so with me.

• Visit friends in warmer climes - there is a distinct advantage to traveling during the winter, which is that you can escape a wintery climate for a more temperate one on a coast or abroad. I have tried to time my trips to visit friends in California and Arizona for the dismal months of January and February—after the post-holiday high has worn off and the days feel longer and darker. An added bonus: flights are often cheaper this time of year, as peak travel times are generally around the major holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and during the summer.

• Find friends who will venture out with you - Last winter, I spent a lot of time with several friends trying to break out of our respective winter slumps. I took Buckwheat on short hikes in nearby canyons to breathe a bit of fresh air, I went hiking with my Canada crew of Laura and Angie (we were cautious about the timing and locations, as winter avalanches are a real danger in most mountainous areas), and Laura and I tried Nordic skiing. While these examples are all outdoor activities, there are plenty of well-suited indoor activities that are better with a friend—getting hot chocolate (don't worry, M and I did many times at Hatch Family Chocolate), browsing a local bookstore, or stopping by the winter farmers market. 

• Identify winter activities which you would realistically do - Alpine (downhill) skiing and snowboarding are the classic winter pastimes of many Utahns, but I have never done either and having met my quota for broken limbs, do not particularly care to try those riskier winter sports. Snowshoeing, however, is much more my pace, and I discovered that while I was terrible at it (and very sore after falling 200 times), I genuinely enjoyed Nordic (cross-country) skiing. I visited the Salt Lake winter farmers market for the first time last winter and bought squash, greens, and other winter produce. If you prefer to stay indoors, find some projects you have been meaning to work on or books you've been meaning to read.

• Find antidotes to the things you most dislike about winter - This can relate very closely to part one of winter provisions; I hate being cold, so many of my ways to survive winter are aimed at combatting the temperature-induced discomforts. If you need more daylight, try taking a walk outside during a lunch break or during another spare moment. Last winter, I made a point of exercising several times a week at the rec center and included swimming laps about once a week. The smell of chlorine evokes summer and tricks my senses for a brief moment. Typical produce at the grocery store is often lacking the rich flavors of summer farm-fresh produce. I try to cook more squash and eat lots of citrus while it's in season.

Seeing how much this tiny dog loves the snow makes me tolerate it just a bit more than I probably would otherwise :)

This small dog has a tell which is that when she is nervous or afraid, she will play tough and bark her gruff little bark, but she will sit on your feet so you know she is bluffing.

Nordic/cross-country skiing. Utah's air quality is dismal in the winter, but escaping to the mountains even for a few hours is wonderful.

Do you have any winter survival tips which have proved tried and true? (Obviously it is MUCH TOO SOON FOR THIS but I will file them away for future reference) Or any friends in Hawaii I can tag along with you to go see? (kidding. but only a little)

I realize it is AUGUST and no one in their right mind is possibly thinking about winter, but in my age-old attempt to catch up on my back-posting, I have some photos from last winter and some thoughts to accompany them. Without further ado...

I love the earth and all of her seasons, but my feeling toward winter most closely resembles that of the Narnians—perfectly fine when Christmas is coming, but all winter and no Christmas?—No, thank you.

Winter, however, in most of this slice of the northern hemisphere is long and dark and occurs mostly after Christmas. Of necessity, I have tried to reconcile myself to this fact and to find ways to weather, and I daresay even enjoy, winter. The last two winters especially have been a bit of a game-changer for me, and I hope to keep that momentum as the months get colder later this year.

winter provisions which I highly recommend:

• a long, puffy coat - during the darkest winter months, I leave my house for work and arrive home from work in the dark. Scraping one's windshield is much more pleasant with a coat that goes to one's knees and a snaps which button under one's chin or over one's scarf. I finally invested in a classic, quality piece that I love and will wear for the next 15 years at least (unless it wears out sooner through loving overuse).

• an electric blanket - I spent a couple years in an older house in which my back bedroom was a later addition to the original house and not very well-insulated. My electric blanket was a lifesaver. Most models have adjustable heat settings as well as automatic shut-off.

• thick wool socks - no one wants icy feet; from October to April, I basically wear wool socks day-in and night-out.

• an appliance timer - I owe this suggestion to Mallory, who has appliance timers programmed for her living room lamp in the winter—she never comes home to a dark house! I used mine to automatically turn on my space heater when my morning alarms would start sounding; when I lived in the chilly back bedroom (an obvious 10-degree difference from the main room of the house), I could never bear to get out of bed because I would be too cold. This made all the difference in helping me get up for work when it was still dark out. (this is a basic one but you can find them at most grocery stores, Target, and online.)

• vests - the most versatile of layers, in my opinion! You can layer vests with long or short sleeves, with lighter sweaters, even over cardigans. If you work in an office where the door activities let in gusts of wintry air, vests can make all the difference.

• all the tea - I love tea and have tried so many kinds to find my favorites. Lemon ginger and lemon are especially soothing for winter sore throats. I also love HT peppermint (their peppermint is deeply flavorful and I can steep each tea bag at least 2 times with very satisfactory results [I steep most of my tea bags twice but many of them are much, much weaker the second go-round]) and Yogi bedtime tea.

• daylight - This isn't a provision so much as a resource of which one must avail oneself. As I mentioned earlier, I leave and come home in the dark. During the day, I try to expose  myself to as much natural light as possible. I open my blinds at home and at work, and at least once or twice a week, I try to be outside before the sun sets/to watch the sun set.

• balsam-scented candle - Bath & Body Works has for several years carried a balsam fir candle and it is my favorite wintry accompaniment. The scent is perfect leading up to Christmas, but even after Christmas, that woodsy scent brings back the emotional connotation of the early weeks of December.

One thing I love above all about Utah winters is how colorful they are. The east coast winters are bitter cold and dreary grey, while Utah's winter skies are often blue, the sun's warmth still occasionally felt, and the evening light magical more often than not.

Last year I discovered what I hope will continue as winter traditions: the Christkindlmarkt at Pioneer Heritage Park in Salt Lake, Adventsingen, the Lower Lights' Christmas concert (both of their Christmas albums are wonderful), having Buckwheat the cutest dog help to open paper wrapping, Angie's popcorn in holidrizzle flavors (a long-standing tradition), and Ballet West's production of "The Nutcracker."

all the scarves and sweaters are also a necessity!