How to know it's winter.

I went to Trader Joe's the other day and walked out with peppermint extract, chocolate chips, bake-at-home ciabatta rolls, vanilla cinnamon tea, and vanilla ice cream. I've been baking up a storm, drinking more coffee than usual, and curling up under my first throw blanket. I stocked up on sweaters at Goodwill a couple of weeks ago, and I've been wearing them nonstop with thick leggings and socks that go up to my knees.

There are snow flurries in the weather forecast, and at night, we find ourselves huddled around mugs of hot chocolate. We're catching up on TV shows, I'm learning new crochet stitches, and I've broken out the Christmas albums and it looks like a Christmas light store (do those exist?) threw up all over our apartment.

Everything I'm making these days involves making me warmer or baking, thus making our house warmer. How do you know it's winter where you are?