What's up with winter?

So being Midwestern (MN) typically means cold. I'm not talking about chilly, I'm talking about Arctic blast cold -20s -40s with snow, lots of it. We've made it into January without much of a hassle from old man winter and it's got my suspicions up. Today was so nice the kids and I went outside in our fall jackets- it was near 40 degrees!

Don't get me wrong I loved it. The dusting of snow we had was melting, the sun was out. I decided to take down our Christmas decorations of the two light up trees and grazing deer we had purchased before the holidays. It was one of those days you just HAD to get outside.

It does make me wonder what's around the corner though. For certain we will plunge into the freezer. I'm wondering if it means we will also have a rough spring or a very late one? My husband, the typical farmer, already expresses feelings of concern in the lack of snowfall that the following spring and summer may be dry and as result the hay crop may be short.

I'm not able to think that far ahead. I'm ready to get past winter one day at a time. In case you're wondering, I'm more of a summer bug.

For Christmas we were able to have a dusting of snow. The kids went sledding on a hill Christmas eve, with my husband alternately pushing each of them. I even gave it a try, the sled went surprisingly well for how much grass was showing. Just more of a bumpy ride.

Would've loved to see this Christmas morning. Took it last winter, view from my backdoor