The Best Things About Winter ♥

*This post is in collaboration with Regatta, however, as always, all thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.

It's been a long and very cold and windy winter, probably the harshest we've had for a long time. I'd be lying if I didn't say I'm now fully ready to embrace the warmer days of spring - I'm someone who feels the cold quite severely, but we've really had such a lovely winter.

Winter isn't all dull and dreary. There are very special and lovely things such as Christmas to look forward to and winter is beautiful in it's own perfect way - seeing frost everywhere really is a sight to behold and quite a unique sight too when the usually green fields turn white. It just makes everything look a whole lot more magical I think and really is one of the best things about winter - changing the whole landscape! Who doesn't love the sound of the crunch of frost beneath their feet?

Some people want to escape from the winter and choose to go on holiday this time of year and I can't blame them when there seems to be a new storm to contend with every weekend. However, if you choose to stay at home and embrace the winter fully, Regatta - makers of fab clothing for getting outdoors, have put together an interactive #HomeOrAway map to show the best of what the U.K. have to offer in the winter and during the festive period.

It's a great resource for finding or planning activities in winter or at Christmas time, with lovely activities such as seeing The Northern Lights, ice-skating, dog sledding and the Polar Express included, as well as many others across the U.K. If you're a winter lover and want to get out and about and enjoy everything the season has to offer, the #HomeOrAway map is great to take a look at for planning trips and days out during the winter as it also gives the cost of the activities and compares them to similar activities and their costs abroad - which seem to be a lot higher!

My favourite memories from this past winter were enjoying Christmas in our new home - it's always so love to see the children's faces on Christmas morning. I also loved carrying on our annual tradition of decorating a woodland Christmas tree. As a family of outdoor lovers I love that we can embrace the outdoors, even on the coldest of days and make so many memories outside.

I also loved photographing the frosty woods and the flowers in the garden - frost is a photographers dream! Even though we live in such a cold country - in terms of winter anyway, real frost that sticks is quite rare, so seeing it covering the woods and flowers in the garden was amazing.

Although we haven't done any hugely exciting activities such as ice-skating, etc. this winter, due to the house move and everything else we had going on, we did try and get out and about as much as we possibly could. The boys were wrapped up warm in their coats and wellies from Regatta - I can't recommend them enough for outdoor clothing, they're fab! Tyler loves his new Regatta coat, which kept him toasty warm while climbing trees.

Finally, the last lovely aspect to our winter was lambing season starting early. On January 2nd we started the new year with our first twin lambs, Adam and Eve, who I've spent my days bottle feeding. It's been a whole new live experience for us but we're really enjoying life in the country and there's nothing lovelier than cosying up by the warm lighting range when we come in from outside.

Hopefully next winter we'll have the time, energy and funds to explore a bit more and try out some winter activities such as skiing, sledding and winter train rides.

What's your favourite thing about winter? What winter activities do you love most?