Winter Wonderland?

The most common cliché to describe winter is “winter wonderland,” but is it really a wonderland per se? In my opinion, winter can come and go within a week. I love the snow as it’s falling, it’s so pretty and light and fluffy, but I hate the cold. I work a daycare and we are obligated to take the kids outside for at least half an hour every day the temperature exceeds 10 degrees with wind chill. Granted this isn’t too often in the virtually tundra-like Iowan winters that we get a day where it’s above 10 degrees with wind chill, it’s still difficult to muster up the courage to face the cold for half an hour when it is. The 3-5 year olds I watch also make it difficult to do with their complaining and requirements to be warm and not freeze. There’s also the matter of sand and salt that tends to get all over everything you touch after coming in from the streets. Not to mention that it causes the perfectly white snow that looked so beautiful as it fell from the sky to look like poo. The sand is one of the main reasons why winter should only linger here for a week. In that time I don’t think it would be here long enough for the big bad trucks to hinder its figure so the only memory one has of it is how pretty it was.
The perfect week for winter to come and go would be the week of Christmas. As much as I dislike the cold and everything that comes with it, it has to be cold for Christmas and there has to be snow on the ground. It just wouldn’t be Christmas without it. It would be perfect if it would snow throughout the whole day on Christmas, but I could deal with there just being snow on the ground. I’d get over it. There shouldn’t be an excessive amount of snow though, just a few inches. Just enough to cover everything in site would be sufficient.
I know my specifications in anyone else’s eyes may seem ridiculous and extreme, but I believe they are very reasonable and plausible with global warming slowly creeping into the lives of all.