Welcome, January! Hello, beautiful snowfalls, crisp winter air, ice skating dates, snowmen in the yard, and, oh, the all-too-familiar temperature drops. When the air outside turns water to icicles and breaths of air to steamy clouds, focusing efforts indoors has newfound appeal.
Our favorite indoor activities to welcome winter with open arms fall into four categories: edibles, drinks, crafts and activities. This guide for a snow day at home will have you warm and cozy on even the most frigid of days. Ready, set, winter!
Incredible Edibles
Snow days are the perfect time to try recipes that have been stashed away for months. Start with breakfast, and work towards dessert.
Being snowbound means more time to prepare a killer morning meal. Try a pear French toast bake or some equally amazing recipe you’ve been eyeing up but haven’t had the time to make just yet.
After a serious breakfast, a nap might be in order. If energy still runs plentiful, this is a great time to work on mastering an old family recipe. For me, that’s my Nana’s pasta fagioli (pronounced pasta fazool). The pasta, beans and vegetables combine to form the perfect antidote to a cold winter’s day. Bonus: making a big pot of soup means leftovers will be plentiful for lunches throughout the week.
After dusk it may be time to whip up a batch of peppermint marshmallows (so you have them on hand to pop into piping hot cocoa). Bust out recipes from colleagues and friends that you’ve been meaning to try! Or those interesting goat cheese sugar cookies that you saw on that food blog recently (Love and Olive Oil is great, or check out Food 52 and our own blogger Phoebe Canakis on the BCL website!). Now’s the time to give these back-burner recipes a test run and see how amazing they are from your very own kitchen.
Shaken, Not Stirred
If the idea of spending the entire day in the kitchen isn’t for you, there’s always the option of stirring up a batch of hot cocoa and moving on to alternate indoor activities. Hot chocolate is a total crowd pleaser for kids and adults alike. Abandon the packaged mix and try your hand at the real deal. Mix cocoa powder, sugar, salt and a small amount of milk together in a saucepan until the cocoa and sugar are dissolved. Then whisk in the rest of the milk and finish off with a splash of vanilla. Garnish with those peppermint marshmallows for a decadent at-home cocoa sipping experience (see the sidebar with tips for building a fire to really set the scene).
For those bourbon fans, there are few beverages as satisfying during times of frigid temperatures than a Hot Toddy. Combine honey with hot water, then add bourbon, lemon peel and a cinnamon stick. Serve piping hot in a batch of two, as it’s best shared with a comrade while swapping stories of winters gone by.
Alternatively, use this snow day to test out winter-worthy cocktails for future soirees. Cranberry mimosas seem like a great place to start! Just combine equal parts prosecco, cranberry juice, sparkling soda (or sparkling elderflower soda) and add frozen cranberries for garnish.
Get Crafty
Making a winter-worthy wreath is an ideal snowed-in activity if you’re feeling creative.
Two simple ingredients are required before you can begin: a wreath ring (Michaels has a few options) and green florist’s wire. If you store these two ingredients at home before the snowflakes start falling, a walk outside will provide the rest of the materials you need. Simply cut an assortment of evergreen twigs, plants, berries and flowers on a walk around the yard or neighborhood. Upon returning home, the plant cuttings should be trimmed to 5-inch lengths, then wired to the pre-purchased wreath frame. For a step-by-step guide on wreath creation, check out this Fellow Fellow blog tutorial (http://fellowfellow.com/diy-christmas-wreath/).
Gift Bow photos by Evie Milo of Milo Made
Combine an exercise in recycling with an opportunity to prepare for gift-giving throughout the year.
Take old colored magazines (not suitable for burning in a fire) and turn them into gift bows for future presents. Cut magazine pages into ¾3/4-inch strips (don’t worry; if you’ve read your copy of BCL front to back, we won’t be offended). Make three of the strips 11 inches long, two of the strips 10 inches, two 9 inches, and one 3.5 inches. Twist each strip into a figure eight pattern to make loops at both ends, and then secure with double-sided tape. Layer the figure eight loops onto each other starting with the longest strips and ending with the 3.5” strip (looped into a circle). This is a fun activity to do with kids that will set you up for beautiful gift-giving throughout the year and get rid of some of that junk mail around the house! (Visuals of a variation on the step-by-step process available from the Milo Made blog by Evie Milo: www.milomade.co.uk/blog/2014/12/make-your-gift-wrapping-unique.
Frigid temperatures are a great excuse to cuddle up inside with a good book, ideally by a roaring fire. Family reading time can be a special bonding experience. Try The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis for a winter-ready family-friendly narrative. For a solo reading experience, The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is a fictionalized, historical account of Ernest Hemingway’s career progression told from the perspective of his wife Hadley Richardson. After finishing The Paris Wife, dive into one of Hemingway’s classic works that has been sitting on the bookshelf waiting to be opened: A Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls or The Sun Also Rises.
Alternatively, a snow day could be leveraged for active family time. Review photos from vacation and archive them in a safe, online storage solution like Dropbox or a photo-specific site like Flickr or Shutterfly. Order prints or create a memorable photo book via iBook or Pinhole Press.
You could also use a snow day to listen to new music. Rolling Stone has thorough reviews of the best albums of the last year. Read up, and then preview the songs and albums you’re interested in on iTunes or SoundCloud before purchasing.
When dusk falls on a snow day, little is better than cuddling up on the couch with some of the hearty soup (or cookies!) made earlier and watching a crowd-pleasing movie. Explore the film offerings of Netflix, with classics like The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman and Breakfast at Tiffany’s with Audrey Hepburn, or more recent movies like The Hunger Games: Catching Fire starring Jennifer Lawrence and World War Z featuring Brad Pitt.
